Does violence breed violence?

Today was a really strange day.

Today was the first time I went back to PBL since coming back from holidays. It seemed that even though I missed more lectures and the actual PBL than my fellow colleagues, I was pretty much on the ball (if only I had more days like that!), apart from getting all the pathophysiological mechanisms down, which I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend I will have.

After PBL was finished, I walked down towards the bus stop in front of the Princess Alexandra Hospital. At the bus stop, this woman, who was quite dishevelled, smoking and seemed to have been drinking, asked me whether I could give her two dollars for the bus. I asked he what bus she was getting on and it turned out that her and I were catching the same bus. I told her that I wouldn't mind paying for her fare into the city. She refused and she wanted the cash. I told her again that I will pay for her fare once we got on the bus. I had my left hand outstretched, which is also the hand that I wear this multi-ringed thumb ring. She snatched and pulled off the ring and put it on. I was quite shocked and asked her to give it back. She said that it was hers and started shouting at me. I asked her again in a firm voice to give it back and she started swearing at me and saying that it was her ring. Mind you were there were a number of other people at the bus station that just stood there. I grabbed her hand and tried to pry my ring off of her finger. I realised at that point that she had a cigarette in the other hand. The thought of her burning me with her cigarette crossed my mind. At this point, the bus that I needed to catch already came and left. She started to walk off in the opposite direction of traffic. I grabbed her hand harder this time, and forced my ring off of her finger whilst she was cussed me out. I put my ring on my finger and started walking in the other direction. SMACK! This lady had all of a sudden smack me across my face, so hard in fact that I almost lost my balance and my sunnies flew off my face! I was shocked! I couldn't believe that someone would have resorted to violence over something like that; then again, to be under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs could have easily put someone in that mindset. After that moment, I walked away thinking that should I have retaliated in some way. No. Violence should not breed violence. It should stop at the very first instance; in fact, there should be none at all. I walked and sat at the bus stop. Meanwhile, the people that were around me were avoiding me. Finally a couple of people came up and asked whether I knew her. It seemed as if they were looking at me as if I were a trouble maker as well. The couple had asked me again whether I knew her and I told them no. They also asked whether I was coming from the hospital. I told them yes and that I was a medical student, in the hopes of clearing up any misconceptions they had about me. And apparently they did, because they were quite surprised, "OH! You are a medical student. I'm very sorry that that had to happen to you. You can never trust those sort of people." I felt dejected, I felt as if all the work done in the fight against stereotyping and prejudice went down the drain. I felt powerless because no matter what I could have said, it would have been all in vain. Do I want sympathy from people when they hear about things like this? No. Do I hope that these sort of things make people question their interactions with other? Yes. You know what...fuck it. I'm too tired to be thinking about this at the moment. Not only that but I'm sick and tired of knowing that the difference one person tries to make ends up being a drop in the ocean. I know that I won't stop doing what I do...but at times it's hard to keep it up.