My own personal stories and encounters on the metroShort but sweet.
Today on the metro my car was pretty crowded, and there was a gentleman sitting across from me. A lady walked in on the train and stood by one of the poles and hung on with her hand grasped tight.
Right away, the gentleman got up and looked at the woman and said,
“You can sit here.”
The lady smiled gently and took his seat while he took her place next to the pole.
It made my heart smile to know that gentlemen still exist, that they know certain courtesies.
#it was so sweet #the look on her face
Sitting on the metro reading my book, a guy walks in and sits right across from me. I notice he was carrying an already open sketch book and had a pencil in hand. As he sat down he immediately started putting his pencil to work. I had my nose in my book and looked up ever so often and caught him glancing over to the seats next to me, then quickly looked down and scribbled.
A stop or two later I looked up yet again, made eye contact with him, and looked down right away. “Is he drawing me?” I asked myself. I was afraid to look up again, so I kept reading my book. My stop arrives and I grab my bag to get ready to depart. The guy that was sketching starts packing up his stuff, too, and gets off at the same spot as I do.
I end up walking behind him the whole way to my school; ends up he goes to the same school I do, and I followed him into the same elevator. It was a tad awkward, but I just stood there smiling, wishing I can ask him to see his drawing.
But he got off the elevator before I did and I stood there, silently waving goodbye.
#i should have looked before he packed up #and i should have made funny faces #just to see how he would react
I was on the metro the other day reading my John Piper book. It’s a really good book called “Think” it’s about how we think and read the word, essentially. There is no one sitting around me except for one older black gentleman who is sitting directly across from me.
Well, a few stops into the metro ride, the man comes over and sits a seat away from me and asks,
“What are you reading?”
“A book called Think.” He sits there with a blank expression on his face so I continue,
“It’s a book by John Piper, he’s a pastor up north for some mega church.” He nods and acknowledges my words this time and responds,
“John Piper?” as he starts to write down the name on the newspaper laid nicely in his lap.
“Yup,” I reply, “he’s a really good minister and author and has a bunch of other books. Think is about how you interpret the bible and well, how you think.”
“Oh so it’s a religious and, like, a scientific book?” He responds, looking up from writing.
“Religious yes, but not scientific.” He nods and says a quick “Thank you very much” and walks back over to his seat.
For the rest of the ride he doesn’t say anything, and when his stop arrives he did a quick wave in my direction and walked off.
Thank you, random curiosity.
#random #curiosity #John Piper #religion
There was a little boy on the metro today about the age of six. I knew he was going to be a fun riding buddy when he said, “Wow, we’re FLYING!” once the metro started to go. He was with his mother and he had so many questions about the metro.
“What line is this?”
“How does the train know what side of the doors to open?”
“How fast are we going?”
“How many more stops?”
“When are we going to go over the bridge?”
“Wow! Are we under ground right now?”
Oh what I would do to have the mind of a six year old. Wait, no, scratch that.
#i like my educated mind #thank you very much
Today was apparently a holiday, because there were so many teenagers on the metro. I was sitting and reading my book like usual, when all of a sudden a flood of kids came on the metro and all awkwardly sat down. At first none of them said anything, but then when the metro started to go the girl next to me said,
“Whoa, thanks for the seatbelt warning!” And after that comment was said, the conversations burst out from all around me. I had no problem with it, of course, the girl next to me was actually quite entertaining to listen to. She would talk about the metro, about how she wants to go to school in New York, and then she would randomly burst into a Justin Bieber song. And I only knew it was Bieber because she said it was. Then she started talking about the guitar and how she would “so totally bring a guitar and sing to people on the metro.” Her friends across the way would laugh at her and exclaim,
“She just doesn’t have a filter, does she?” I smiled to myself and attempted to read some more, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I just had to wait until all of them left. And sure enough, their stop came up and they let everybody on that metro train that it was their stop, let me tell you. My favorite part of this story is that while they were leaving the Chatty Cathy that sat next to me looks back to me and says,
“Sorry for disturbing you while you were reading!”
How kind.
#i wish i wasn't like that as a teenager #maybe i was
Here’s a short but sweet one for you.
I was walking fast up the escalator to get to the metro, just in case one was almost leaving. As I was walking up the left side, I trip on one of the stairs and almost slam my face right into the step.
I immediately thought about how awkward that would be, seeing that it was an escalator and I would probably just lay there while it carried me up to the top.
#laziness at its greatest should be the title really
The metro pulls up and I walk in, find an open seat, and get my book out. Right after I’m all settled I hear someone call out to me,
“What book are you reading?” A middle aged gentleman asks me, sitting next to two other people.
“Mere Christianity.” I look at his face and see no sense of recognition so I reply again,
“C. S. Lewis.”
“Oh! I can’t read that, I would have to be a literature major for that. I won’t disturb you anymore.” I say my two cents, smile, and continue to read. As the train road on, the gentleman and his friends had their own conversations up until their stop arrived.
“Awp, this is our stop! Let’s go.” They all get up to leave, and the woman that was with them gets real close to me. In fact, she sits right next to me, leans in and says,
“If you had the chance, would you screw him?” Taken back by this question I look at her and ask,
“What?” She repeats herself with a huge smile on her face. I just awkwardly tell her no and she says something smart and gets on her way.
#i don't understand people anymore
Class finally let out and I was walking my normal route to get to the metro. I crossed the street, and was close to go down those stairs to get through to the metro. But, even before I made it to the stairs I hear, “Excuse me, miss?”
I look up from my half-typed text message and spot a middle aged black man looking straight at me.
“I love that coat, can I ask you a question?” I walk over to him and try to figure out what he might ask me, or a better question, what he might sell me.
“What are two things you need daily to survive?”
“Water, and.. crap, um, food.” I stutter. He chuckles.
“Yes, well, we need water and food, not water and crap.” I chuckle at his response, and he gives me a high five.
Then he follows with mentioning child trafficking, asking if I know anything about it, etc. I was standing out there for a good five minutes listening to him, reading his flyers, learning about this subject. He asks how old I am and I respond, “Twenty.” He clicks his tongue and says
“Ah, that’s the thing, you have to be 21 to sign up.”
Welp! Needless to say I was on my way after that. But before I left, he complimented my coat one last time.
#i care about the cause #just not on the street of DC
