MIND THE GAP

When I first got accepted at Iona I thought that being in another country, in college, would be a daunting challenge. I was soon to find out it was not college that made my days harder, it was the commute. For those of you who will be reading this piece of writing before I say where I commute for please feel free to say: Wow! and be amazed. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I commute all the way from Fairfield, Connecticut and it normally was not supposed to be such a weird and long way. However my life experiences have taught me that normal is not the thing to expect. My first few months of going back and forth by train were the delight and amusement of my family at night. What might have been funny for them was not as entertaining to me. To give you a feeling of what I went through, here are some random happenings over the fall semester.
-My best friend for nine years will most definitely refuse to go with me at the train station. Why you ask? It’s not that she is a bad friend, it’s because every single time I place foot on the platform there is an announcement at the station. This is how my mornings start: “Attention at Fairfield! The 7:50 train to New York will be approximately 5 minutes late!”. The delay differs depending on how much I have offended the Divine forces that say. However, as frustrating as this may seem, there is a lesson I have learned. I never, ever, arrive at the train station more than 5 minutes before the train leaves, hoping that I will be there on the exact same time as the train. As you may assume my precautions have not stopped the Divine forces to play around and make the train arrive earlier or get cancelled.
- When I do manage to mind the gap and make it successfully in the train my adventure takes a whole new turn. On my first day of classes, the train was late 20 minutes ( I honestly believe that the supernatural forces have a copy of my agenda and depending on how important my day is, that is how they calculate the delay). I had to get off at Harrison and change the train. When the conductor announced Harrison as the next stop I went by the door so I could be the first one to get out. Wrong! The train did stop at Harrison but the door did not open (they usually announce when a door does not open, but not this time around) I looked around and saw through the window that in the next cart a man was waving, moving his mouth and pointing out to the door in that cart. I ran, realizing that was the only way out of the train. I made it to that second cart, yelled that I had to get out but what do you know? the train had already left. On the verge of wanting to call my mom and ask who had she pissed when I was born, the conductor pushes a button, the train stops and I am allowed to get off at Harrison only a few feet farther than I was normally supposed to.
-This is not even the half of it. Before the finals last semester I was in the local train studying, when the conductor announces Riverside as the next stop. I was actually thinking that I was in the train for almost 30 minutes and nothing unusual had happened. I was wrong though. They announce Riverside and I decide to take a break and look through the window, The train was going with full speed ahead and I was peaceful…however the window showed me the Riverside station and the train did not stop…it actually wandered off in the unknown…Still trying to make sense of the whole thing, I hear the conductor announcing: “We’re sorry we forgot to stop *laughing* we’re going back so we can stop at Riverside. *still laughing* Riverside next stop!” I know, weird and although I also found it funny, I sure bet it wouldn’t have been as funny if I had to get off at Riverside. However, my new prerogative with trains is: do not question the trains, take them as they come. I don’t even try to make sense out of the whole thing.
-Once I was waiting for the train to New Haven, enjoying a book and thinking I was actually lucky because it was not late. While I was on the side going to New Haven on the other side the train to New York arrived. Being absorbed by my book I did not notice anything. But a BOOOOM! sound sort of got my attention. When I looked up, one of the antennas of the train had an electrical problem, it short circuited or something and the whole electrical system went down, meaning exactly what you thought- that my train was late, once again.
All these are in my top ten weird things at the train station. I do have more; like people in the train, an insight into their phone conversations (this is compulsory as involuntarily one will hear the conversation of how somebody forgot to call their mom, is in love with someone else, how something really important happened –this however is a mystery, because the conversation has only two lines: ‘oh my God! Oh my God! You are not going to believe it!” and then it repeats itself but you never find out what exactly happened because when the person actually decides to say it, you have to get off-I am assuming this is one of Murphy’s u unwritten laws), and weird reactions.
So the lesson for all you reading this: GO AND KISS YOUR CAR AND TELL IT HOW MUCH IT MEANS TO YOU! You never know when one of you will have to mind the gap.