Here's Why I'll Never Get Mad About Train Delays Anymore
You never know the whole story.
Everyone has been in a frustrating situation that has caused them to be late for work. A broken alarm clock, a wrinkled shirt that needs ironing, traffic.
I'm one of those people that thrives on the routine that comes along with public transportation. Though not always convenient and punctual the Chicago Blue Line has always gotten me from place to place without any major inconveniences.
Until one morning in April
On a sunny, breezy Monday morning I waited for a train that didn't come.
I usually jump on the blue line around 8:10AM and I make it to the Chicago loop around 8:30AM. This 20-minute train is usually packed, but the wait for the next slightly less packed train to arrive never takes more than a few moments, until that Monday.
I noticed something was wrong when I saw throngs of people waiting for buses in the opposite direction. The Western Blue Line stop flooded with people on their cell phones. I knew there was going to be some sort of delay, but I headed up the steps to the train to see just how bad it would be.
An "indefinite delay" was taking place. I pulled out my phone to call an Uber, and much to my dismay the surge was already about 3.4x the regular fair, in other words it would cost me about $70 to get to work.
I started to panic, being late to something, especially work made me both anxious and angry.
As silly as it sounds, I felt very helpless. I just moved further north to this neighborhood, and I wasn't sure of all the ins and outs of the public transportation system in Chicago.
I jumped on a random bus a slew of other disgruntled commuters were lining up for. It took me about two miles and then let us all off. I took another bus and then ended up at the Division Blue Line, a few miles from where I started and facing the same delays as the Western stop was that morning.
By now I was two hours late to work and in full panic mode. Everyone around me was either furiously typing an email into their phones, or bitching about what a terrible inconvenience this was to someone on the other end.
I checked Twitter for any news stories. I needed some answers about what was going on.
As I scanned tweets from The Chicago Tribune and other Chicago-based news outlets I found my answer. A 55 year-old man jumped in front of a Blue Line train at the Belmont station that morning killing himself.
I felt goosebumps on my skin and a lump in my throat. I looked around at all the angry people. I realized that a few seconds ago when I was ignorant of this information I too was one of those angry people.
Yes, we were all late for work. Yes, that was inconvenient. But someone lost their life that day, and our inconveniences became so small in comparison.
I thought about that man and I thought about the CTA workers dealing with the situation.
Who was the driver that saw this man jump, but knew it was too late to stop him? Who were the people that retrieved the body from the tracks? Who were the witnesses, unaware of the traumatic scene that awaited them when they awoke that morning?
But most importantly, who was that man?
I was pretty shaken up the rest of the day. My boss and coworkers understood my tardiness, but I could not get the incident out of my head. I realized how angry we all became when we didn't realize the whole story. We only saw our own inconveniences when we should have been paying attention to the struggles of those around us.
Things happen that are out of our control. It's important to approach them with patience and understanding.
I learned that day that I can't become irrational and angry without truly knowing the facts regarding the situation I am in.
Had I known someone lost their life that morning I wouldn't have texted my sister complaining, I wouldn't have joined in on the banter with other commuters bitching about the incapabilities of the CTA, and I wouldn't have had such a negative attitude about it.
Next time my train is late I will wait. I will be patient and I will be kind to those around me. I will know that the situation I am in has factors unknown to me, and that I can't control what happened, but I can control how I react to it.