In New York City, there are over five million people who commute via subway on weekdays; odds are you are one of them or have had a public transportation experience before. If you haven't, you will never know the everyday horrors of feeling like a sardine in an actual tin can.
In the mornings, everyone is preoccupied with whatever is going on inside their heads. We only briefly diverge from our thoughts when it's "showtime", when an attractive passenger gets on the train, or when someone is doing something bizarre that the only explanation for their behavior is, "They're crazy".
If you are a regular subway commuter in a large metropolis like New York City, then you most likely do not run into the same people each and every time you board your subway car; especially if you ride a popular train line. I can only recall a handful of times when I have seen the same face more than once. The moment can be fleeting.
The last time I saw a face on the subway that I have previously seen was a couple of weeks ago. Right after I noticed the passenger get off the train, a fact started to resurface: New York City's population is huge. You might be thinking, "Well, duh". You are right and welcome to do so, I thought this too. The significance of this moment for me was that in order to not see the same faces every day, a city's population would have to be so enormous that the likelihood of running into the same person on the subway would be one in eight million.
There is a kind of sadness to this fact of never seeing the same people again at the start of your morning. There is barely any human connection during our subway rides. There is also a sense of excitement. There has never been a better time to meet new people in a city as dense as New York City.
There is a part of me that wonders what it would have been like to grow up in a small town. When I see people be awestruck just by looking around the city, my immediate thought is. "Yeah, that's great". I got desensitized. But the epiphany (if that's what we want to call it) I had in the subway has once again brought back the wonder that is New York. Don't get me wrong, I love this city; but like most people, your everyday surroundings become normalized.
So to anyone who rides the subways or buses in New York City, or any metropolis for that matter, I hope that you have had or will have the same experience I did. I'm not going to lie, my experience made me feel pretty small in comparison to the other five million people riding the trains that day. But it did, however, make me feel like I was a part of the bigger web that makes up this city's charm.
