One of my nieces once told me, ‘we watch for you every time there is a large family event, you are always looking around, what are you doing?’ Awareness, I always try to be aware of my surroundings, who is there, where are the exits and is anything wrong.

Growing up I was once jumped by around eight guys, I saw them, just didn’t think anything was going to happen. I was robbed that day and since then I became more aware. I relive that event and try to learn from it, it was a traumatic episode in my life.

When my son was around ten years old, one of the companies I did business with gave me three tickets to the Red Sox late in the season behind home plate; the Sox were out of the playoffs so the game didn’t mean anything. I wanted to go because Roger Clemens was pitching so I asked my son if he would like to bring a friend to the game. It was a cold, overcast day, after the game the three of us were walking back to the car, which was parked over on Beacon St., so we had a bit of a walk. As we were crossing the bridge by the Sears building I noticed two guys coming from the MBTA station stairs. I told my son, ‘please stay close to me’ the boys were fooling around so it was getting hard to keep them beside me. I then noticed the guys split apart, one going behind me the other staying in front, been in this situation before! The guy in front of me asks, ‘hey, do you have a match?’ The other guy was right behind me now, of course my son and his friend were still running around as I was trying to keep an eye on them and the two guys. I put my hands up in a defensive manner and said as I moved to one side, ‘guys, I have been in this situation before, you want to do something? Let’s do it now!’ They both stopped, looked at me didn’t say anything for a moment then one of them said ‘f*** you’ and they walked away.

Last month I was teaching at the studio when my wife called with a situation that really could have been bad. She went shopping on route 9 around 9:00pm which she never does that late at night. She explained as she was walking back to her car she noticed two guys sitting in a car near hers. She walked away from their car circling over to hers when they got out of the car approached her saying ’hey lady, got any money for us?’ She had her keys ready and quickly got into her car and left.

How many times in an elevator did you ever notice most everyone is looking down, not paying attention, purses wide open slung over shoulders, earphones on. The point is try to be more aware of your surroundings, be mindful where you are, not paranoid but be more aware.