It's 3:20 pm on a Friday afternoon in The Big Apple and I'm standing on the 34th street platform waiting for an uptown F train to go to 63rd street and Lexington. Around me I see an elderly woman walking with her cane and I also see a mother with her child who was filled with unlimited energy. Amongst the "melting pot" as I like to call it, people from all walks of life were standing on this platform waiting for their train to come on this unseasonably warm day at the end of February. Then a M train comes roaring into the station and I realize just how big this platform is as this train comes to a complete stop in the middle of this platform. A few people squeeze by and make their way onto this train. I take this opportunity to try to align myself with the doors in an attempt to be one of the first people on my train when it arrives. Then a D train comes into the station and the platform empties a little more. Finally at long last the F train comes into the station and stops a little further than I would like it to so I had rush the doors with a group of and fight my way onto this already crowded train.

Once on the trainI squeezed my way into the train and was able to find myself a small corner, and just as the train was about to pull away at the last second I was able to grab a little bit of the bar ahead saving me from falling on top of people. When you either are from New York or just happen to spend most of your life growing up there. Being on a crowded subway feels like second nature. Knowing this and putting myself in almost a mental trance is what helped me get through the ride. Otherwise the combination of the old woman from the platforms cane poking me in the back, people on the train having their own conversations some louder than others and inches away from me, body heat from other people, sweat pouring from my head, plus claustrophobia setting in would drive any other person insane. Then at long last the train reaches my stop and I get off just as the doors were about to close. As I am walking to go upstairs I look to my right and I see the train operator in his little area in the front of the train and I think to myself "how comfortable it must be in there". Really think about it, the space the operator is in is no bigger than the space between the two double seats on any subway train. And all the buttons and switches in there take a few more inches of space away. But still it's just him and his thoughts plus the responsibility of operating a train back and forth for people to be able to get where they need to go. All that separates the operator from the people on the train is the door to his compartment. The only other people that know that same level of comfort are other train operators and the operators of MTA Busess.