Switching Seats

Subway Rides

I was riding the subway (which is apparently what I am supposed to call the metro—according to New Yorkers) and was sitting silently listening to my music playing through my earbuds. A girl a few seats across the car waved at me to get my attention and showed me her phone screen on which she had typed a message on her notes app. 

She had typed, “you have extremely beautiful hair!” on her phone and as I read the text, my eyes got wide and met hers as she peered back at me, waiting intently for my reaction. I was surprised and smiled, surely blushing from cheek to cheek. She just made my day! I said thank you to her and she and her friend giggled and got off at the next stop. Damn. I love when people are kind to others like that. It keeps reminding me that no matter where you are, human kindness exists everywhere. 

I was sitting on the subway and a couple speaking another language sat beside me for a few minutes. After discussing something with each other, they both got up and walked through the car, and stood in front of the map of the subway lines plastered on the wall. This was the first time I had seen someone (besides myself) even glance at the map on the wall of the subway car. It seems like everyone relies on google maps or a similar application on their phone to tell them where to go these days. I have had to save myself the embarrassment of getting lost after running out of phone battery a few times by looking at the map on the wall, but generally, I too rely a great deal on Google Maps to find my way around Manhattan. Now I keep a mental note of how many people I see looking at the map on the wall. 

Musical Chairs

After each subway ride, I climb the steps leading out of the station with a new story, new thoughts, and many many questions about the people in New York City. When people move to a different seat on the subway after sitting there for a while … I always then play this guessing game with myself to try to figure out why they moved seats. What did their musical chairs mean? What was so bad about their seat before? Was it because they didn’t want to sit next to the person who just sat next to them? Have they been on the subway for a while and just decided they wanted new scenery? To see the car from a new perspective? Or are they trying out every seat in the car to find the best one? 

Often times I do see people standing up to accommodate someone who may need or appreciate the place to sit, which I think is a pretty considerate thing for subway riders to do. Another reason people may switch seats is because of a possible threat entering the car. According to a few people I talked to around the city, there was a woman who hung out around a specific subway stop downtown. She would walk up to young girls sitting on the subway and punch them in the face… I have not run into this woman yet, and hope I never do, but can definitely imagine that if I ever felt like I was about to be hit in the face by someone, I would also move seats with haste. 

Though sporting masks indoors is still a mandate in New York City, there are still occasionally people who choose to not follow such protocols. I am personally not one of those people, especially when it comes to wearing masks on the subway in which you are sometimes packed in with a bunch of strangers like sardines, side by side. I prefer to avoid other people sneezing, coughing and breathing on me as much as I can during these subway rides. And I must say, when someone without a mask on sits next to me, I do occasionally succumb to the uncomfortable urge to change seats. 

I have also not only switched seats, but walked to an entirely different car on the subway before. These occasions were usually due to there being a person in my car doing something that I did not want to be a part of or witness. One of these occasions was when a few people were camped out on the subway at 3 o’clock in the morning, both standing in the middle, smoking cigarettes. I must have not noticed the smoke clouding up in the car until I had sat down in one of the seats. But when I took in a breath of pure second-hand smoke, I realized that I needed to get out of there as soon as possible. Stepping out of that car and moving down to the next one, I think, was a pretty warranted action and version of musical chairs. 

Knowing People 

I finally ran into someone I knew randomly on the subway. I was on my way home from the movies with a few of my friends from class when another girl from the same class walked up with her sister by her side. My peer said that she recognized our voices from the other side of the subway car and knew she needed to catch us before we got off at our stop. We were all shocked to see each other and I believe that it was all of our first encounter with someone we knew on the subway. I look forward to the next time I run into someone I know in such an unlikely place. 

Want to hear more about how I was an extra in an emerging TV show? Send me a message on my contacts page!