Train Ride Chronicles: No Peace, Just Passengers

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

So let me tell you about riding the train. Because if you ride public transportation long enough, you start to realize it's not just a ride. It's a whole reality show with no commercial breaks. Now I'm on the train, right? I'm just trying to get where I'm going, minding my business, acting like I'm invisible like everybody else does. That's rule number one on the train. Don't make eye contact and don't act like you see anything happening. So I sit down, finally find a seat, and I'm feeling good. I got my bag, I got my thoughts. I'm like, okay, today is going to be peaceful. Wrong. First stop, somebody gets on with a speaker. A whole speaker, not headphones, not airpods, a speaker like they are auditioning for a concert that nobody asked for. And the music loud, not regular loud. I'm talking you can feel the bass in your bones loud. I look around like is this part of the service now? Did I miss an update? Nobody says anything because again, train rules. We all just sit there like it's normal. Then next stop, somebody gets on eating something that smells like it was cooked in a mystery pot. And I don't want to be rude, but why is it that train food smell always hits you like a memory you didn't ask to remember? Now I'm trying to breathe through it, looking out the window like I'm in a music video. But the window is dirty, so even my dramatic moment is struggling. Then here comes the characters. You got the person sleeping like they just finished a twelve hour shift in a war zone, head tilted all the way back, mouth open, no fear, no shame, no awareness of gravity. I'm sitting there thinking Hmm if the train stops suddenly, that person is going to meet God early. And don't let somebody announce their stop wrong. Somebody will stand up, panic, grab their bags, and realize we still have five more stops. Now everybody is watching them, but nobody is helping them emotionally. Just silent judgment. At this point I'm thinking the train is not transportation, it's endurance training. And what's wild is everybody acts like this is normal. Like we all agreed, yes, this is how we live now. But then I remind myself I'm part of it too. I'm sitting there judging everybody while holding my bag like I'm not also just trying to survive the ride. So I get off the train finally, step outside, and I take that deep breath like Lord I made it. And the funniest part, tomorrow I'm going to do it all over again like nothing ever happened.