I don't remember when or how the MTA lost its fear factor but I can tell you that when it did, it was gone. And, for the most part, it stays gone until the clock strikes past about 10PM, but that's just me.

If I ask any friend who commutes or has had to commute to school every day to the Bronx by train, they tend to roll their eyes or just shoot out a quip on how little sleep they get. At the end of the day (or the very beginning), the subway isn't anything too much to handle.

When riding the 4 train each morning, I pass the same people, and the same kinds of people. The mother with her young children, who wriggle and stare out the window; the med students in scrubs who groggily check their phones once we reach 161st Street; the Bronx Science students falling asleep on their friend while trying to finish homework due in 20 minutes. A lot of them are like me, and have to transfer once, but some are worse off. But there's one thing that binds us all. None of us actually wants to be riding this cramped train at 6 or 7 in the morning. None of us really wants to particularly be here, getting stink eyes for grabbing a seat, or trying not to make eye contact with the same one homeless person who hates being touched, or - well, the list goes on, I have to admit.

There are some disaster stories, for sure, but for the most part, people on the train are in similar situations, and look out for each other in little ways. So transportation really isn't all that scary. There are lots of things that can happen without being disasters.

One day, I wound up in the same car as one small child in particular. This child had, from what I picked up, been separated from his mother when she got off the train and he didn't - perhaps couldn't. The car wasn't at its most crowded, but it must have been so overwhelming for the child. He couldn't have been more than 5 years old. The child began to bawl in the most intense mode of sobbing I've ever heard, filled with the worst possible innate fear that quickly got almost everyone in the car involved. Mostly, people like me who had to get off at a quickly approaching stop could only look on in concern, but there were people who took good care of this child.

A crowd soon gathered as the child clutched the pole and cried. These strangers kept asking him his name, asking him how they could reach his mother. Somebody had seen what happened, that the two had gotten separated, but didn't quite know when. Somebody else, after a few minutes of attempts to comfort him, figured out the child only spoke Spanish. They dug into his little backpack and found out his name, written in all caps on his folder. They rummaged a little further, and found a phone number.

In the end, an active group of maybe half a dozen people figured out the child's story and helped reunite this family. Everyone has a soft spot for kids.

Everyone also has a soft spot for friends. I've seen countless friends sleeping on the shoulders of their peers. It's even been me. But people don't miss their stops - Bronx Science kids look out for each other. I always thought that was nice. Innumerable times, I've watched as tired BxSci kids nodded off only to be awoken just in the nick of time to actually get to school. It's a bit sad, thinking back on the fact, but it's the most normal thing in the world to us. This is the lite version of the kind of camaraderie war buddies joke about.

I think what really concerns tourists is the possibility of getting lost, and the possibility of encountering some foul stranger. The first part isn't all that rough. All the train cars have maps, as do the platforms, and the lines are all online for anyone to find. The map may be convoluted at points, but it is literally color coded and labeled at every point.

I once got lost at 10 PM coming home from a rehearsal. I ended up fine, spoiler alert. I was taking the D train insead of the 4 because, "safety in numbers - I'll stick with the group." I overshot by a stop or two, and didn't transfer at 161st. I couldn't just transfer to the D train in the opposite dirction for some reason, though, so I ended up taking a red line train to the 4 train just to transfer again later on. It took a lot longer than I would have liked, but I got home nonetheless.

And another time, just this week, I entered the wrong side of the 86th Street station. The station doesn't let you walk between the uptown and downtown platforms, so I took the 6 to tranfer to another 6 going in the other direction, to take a 4 train again just to transfer. That sounds awfully convoluted but in practice, it's all very simple.

Actually, that's what a lot of Bronx Science life is. It sounds exciting and strange at first, but once you get right down to it, things become clear and you can take things in stride.*

*Stress levels may vary