Gabriel Mansour just found out how dangerous it is to not have an exciting story when people ak you about interesting things that've happened to you. The bus stop he was standing at got completely demolished just seconds after he left it. Read his story.

My brother-in-law, John Valdezco, discovered this the hard way, too. We were on our way to Taal Lake – a lake in the crater of a volcano – when talk turned to adventures. My dad asked John to tell us a story about the most interesting thing that had happened to him so far. Right after he gave up and said that he couldn't think of anything, there was a sudden commotion – a landslide right behind our car.

My mom thought that was a very good reason to never ask someone if anything interesting had ever happened to them. Still, I'm a slow learner. I like listening to people's stories. If you think you might spend some time around me, make sure you've got one ready! You really don't want to tempt fate, especially not around someone happily cursed to live an interesting life.