Category Archives: Assignment 1

MHER 100: Intro to Michelle Hernandez

My name, for the intents and purposes of this class, is Michelle Hernandez. I am a Dominican-born, United States citizen. I grew up in Washington Heights in the building right next to my elementary school and I made sure all of my friends knew it. I am interested in studying biology and tutor students at my old high school Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics. I like to think that I got my passion for science from my father, as he studied forestry in Honduras and is the only family member who understands what I am saying when I talk about my science classes. I’m not quite sure what I want to do for the rest of my life and I’ve been trying (and failing) to convince myself that this is normal for someone my age. However, my fear of ending up with a career that does not fascinate me outweighs my fear of not knowing so I would rather take my time to figure it out. I also realize that I’ve been using ‘I’ a lot in this response, so I apologize.

 

There are many things in that keep me up at night. One of those things is not knowing what exactly my future holds, as stated above. Another is how in the name of apple pie an uninformed celebrity won one the presidential election. But above all, what troubles me is how researchers can narrow down their interest to such specific parameters. I volunteer in a research lab and every second I spend there, I wonder why my mentor has decided to work with this specific strain of strep. My dream is to reach that level of passion for something. Oh! Another thing that keeps me up at night is how people can eat green apple Jolly Ranchers. They’re just wrong.

My Train Story

My Terrible Adventure

 

I have had a variety of mass transit experiences. “This bus is not in service” or “this train is delayed due to train traffic ahead” or my all time favorite, “this train will be making all local stops; please stand clear of the closing doors” are some of the annoyances I hear and/or see nearly every day. However, there was one day when the MTA really out did themselves. I have had inconvenient and uncomfortable train rides home, but this particular day’s commute has to be my worst to date.

The particular day in January over this Winter semester escapes my memory, but I recall it was cold and the calm before the storm of rush hour. I was leaving my tutoring session at Harlem Renaissance High school with the firm intention of catching the 5:35pm 55 Blue Line bus leaving from Dyre Avenue heading towards Cross County. Anyone who lives in the outskirts of the Bronx or Westchester County understands that buses come every half hour and leave within the same minute they arrive. The bus schedule is a photo that never gets deleted from my gallery no matter how often my phone reminds me of how much storage I don’t have. I have a talent of catching the particular uptown 5 train that arrives at the last time a minute or two after my precious bus leaves because of ‘train traffic ahead’, but today I was determined to catch that bus for two reasons: 1. It was time I took back the power over my life the MTA steals from me and sugar coats with automated apologies and 2. I was really hungry.

Hopping around and over the wet spots on the stairwell and strategically avoiding the overly friendly bums asking for a swipe, I swipe my card at the turnstile and proceed down another set of stair to the uptown 4,5, and 6 tracks. Catching an uptown train at 125th is a blessing and a curse. On one hand it is the last stop before the Bronx on all three lines so travel time isn’t terrible on a good day. However, on the other hand, it can feel like the entire borough is trying to go home at the same time so my chances of getting on the first 5 train are slim to none. Elbowing my way through the thick mob of people, I knew this wasn’t just rush hour congestion; something was wrong.

For every three uptown 4 trains there is one uptown 5 train — maybe, so my eyes are always glued to the screen displaying the estimated times of arrival. Of course, the 5 train wasn’t displayed at all which meant that when it came ( or should I say if it came considering the 5 train has a habit of rerouting) it was going to packed with annoyed travelers from previous stops. Great. Within 25 minutes three 4 trains come and go and the board has to display the next arriving 5 train. Ultimately, I know that my commute is susceptible to the MTA’s surprises, but today just wasn’t the day. It was uncomfortably hot and humid and I could hear the rowdy school kids through my music (both head buds were working too, might I add) for me to ignore the unfair truth that within the last half hour people who entered the station after me were on their way home and I was still standing the same spot. I guess the MTA could sense my frustration because this announcement followed my realization: “Due to a power outage at 138th Street Grand Course, uptown 5 trains are running with delays. Some uptown 5 trains are running to 138th Street, for further train service transfer to the 4 train.”

I will never understand why it took 30 minutes for the operator to share that information, but at least now I knew that a 5 train was definitely coming. After some time a 5 train finally arrived and it said it was heading to Eastchester Dyre Ave. There was barely space for the angry passengers already on the train, but I pushed and shoved my onto that train. I even took my book-bag off which something I never do in the fear of being of squished into an awkward position. Someone’s stomach was on my shoulder and my right arm was temporarily paralyzed by bag, but I was finally on a the train and it was moving. The train dispatcher crawls his way from 125th to 138th and stops—the engine. “ALL PASSENGERS MUST EXIT THE TRAIN. THIS TRAIN IS NOW OUT OF SERVICE. NO PASSENGERS.”

At this point I’m nine miles past annoyed. I am 50 shades of angry along with all of Harlem and the Bronx on 138th Street’s slender platform. Obscenities are filling the air, snaps are being recorded and people with an alternative route are leaving the station. I check my watch and it’s 10 mins to 5:00pm. Within 50 minutes, I have only traveled one stop. Just one. To make matters worst the train I was just kicked off can’t move. Million dollar question: Why can’t the train move ? Answer: there’s a power outage at 138th Street Grand Course. This may sound familiar because I already mentioned this tid bit of information much earlier in this recount when the MTA first notified the public of this malfunction before they expertly drove the train, that I fought to get on, on the very track that has no power. The conductor, in all of his almighty wisdom, told us to go back downtown to 125th and take an uptown 4 train to 149th Grand Course and transfer to an Eastchester Dyre bound 5 train. Essentially, I was going back to where I started.

I wouldn’t have been so heated had I been negligent. I paid attention to where the train was going. It said to Eastchester Dyre Ave; I saw the opportunity and I took it. But, the MTA lied to me and didn’t even have the decency to ‘apologize for any inconvenience’. Defeated and cheated, I took the next downtown train back to 125th Street. I have never felt so dumb in my entire life as when I did marching up the steps at 125th to the uptown tracks. I was ashamed to be there again. Officially rush hour now, I wasn’t even going to try to push my way to the front of the crowd. I was just going to wait. In all of this time, the devil tried to tempt me. The Metro North was down the block and wouldn’t have to deal with this ridiculousness any longer. But, my foolish pride told me “NO!” I pay too much for a monthly with the constant threat of fare rising to $3.00 just to pay the ON PEAK fare of another train system. I no longer cared that I missed my bus and was gonna miss the next one at 6:15 at the rate the trains were moving. Even if Jesus came before my train did, I was going to wait.

A couple of 4 trains leave me at 125th Street, but I finally board one and get off, as instructed by our trusted MTA workers, at 149th Street Grand Course. Standing on the platform at 149th Street, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that within 2 hours I had traveled one stop on the 5 in both directions and one stop on the 4 train. If only I had some foresight that would have revealed this fiasco, I could’ve fought my way onto a 4 train to begin with. I called my dad to notify him of how far I am away from home because the idea of still catching a bus after this debacle disgusted me. Around 6:20pm I entered a 5 train that was actually headed to Eastchester Dyre Avenue. My lower back ached from the standing and my stomach wasn’t any less empty now than it was at 4:00pm. Luckily, God rewarded me with a seat so I could sleep through all the unnecessary stops. It took me nearly 3 hours to travel what is supposed to be a 1 hour and 15 minute commute. The MTA never fails to disappoint me. I instill all of my faith in them and they more times than not, let me down in some way, shape or form. If there is anything I learned that wretched day is that the MTA has the power to reach levels of dissatisfaction I didn’t know I possessed.  

 

Assignment One

My name is Jaclyn Bernstein; I am in my third year of the Macaulay honors program at Hunter College. I am majoring in environmental studies, with a concentration in policy and resource management. In addition, I am double minoring in international relations and public policy. I grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia – Newtown, Pennsylvania, and moved to New York with the hopes of eventually securing an internship with the United Nations Environmental Programme.

Top three things about living in NYC:

  1. NYC is a good place to learn. Both in terms of basket weaving and humanity.
  2. I like unexpectedly encountering parades and protests. Most places it is hard to organize 100 people into an event. The wonder of population density.
  3. If a food, an art form, a culture, or a subculture exists, it exists here.

Bottom three things about living in NYC:

    1. It is oddly difficult to actually meet people – that is to form meaningful friendships with classmates and non-classmates alike.
    2. I dislike catcalling – it is the greatest contributor to a feeling of insecurity living in the city – far more than the shadowy threat of a terrorist attack.
    3. The air, soil, and light pollution, and how most times I don’t even notice it.

My most memorable transportation experience was repeated several times over the course of months. In the fall of my sophomore year, I procured a fantastic internship with the National Park Service at Floyd Bennett Field in the Gateway National Recreation Area. It was well paying, interesting and fun work that intersected well with my chosen career field. However, it was a two-hour commute each way between the dorm and the farthest outskirts of Brooklyn. Over the course of several months, I discovered a truth that some people learn earlier in life and many learn later – commuting is horrible. I rode two trains, one bus, and walked about 30 minutes a few times a week. While public transportation generally makes my life easier, it was there I learned the unseen time drains found in transferring and waiting, transferring and waiting. I sometimes paid to travel for the same amount of time I was paid to work. I was lucky it was only a part-time job and I was able to transition many of my work hours into designing the website. Not everyone has the same option.

About Me and A Mass Transit Experience – Jessica Ng

About Me

My name is Jessica Ng, and I am majoring in Computer Science and Chinese at Hunter College. I was born in Queens and have lived there all my life, but my parents came from Hong Kong. I am a voracious reader of fiction, and personally I use my smartphone more for reading than for calling or social media.

What I like most about New York City is that you can find practically anything here. I once read that one can find a museum for anything in New York City (yes, there is a museum of sex too). While that may or may not be factually true, it is also true that NYC is home to a great number of the center of the arts, as well as many other attractions. And these attractions can be reached via NYC’s subway system, which often garners complaints from locals for lateness but I find can still get me around the city. While in other places getting a driver’s license means a teenager has the freedom to go around to places on their own, I love the subway system for getting me around without one. I also appreciate the incredible diversity in culture and people that exist in New York City, at the least for introducing such amazing food to me, but also because I think it’s important in order to develop open-mindedness.

But while I really like the range of food, as a poor college student I am also obligated to complain about the horrendous prices of NYC, especially in Manhattan. It is one of the most expensive cities in the world, a fact that makes me cry internally when I think of the current job market. Another thing I dislike is the occasional encounter on the subway with a homeless person. Not to disparage on the situation homeless people are in, but having a random, stinky stranger to straight-up ask for the food in your hand and then sit behind you when you refuse is genuinely terrifying. Lastly, the weather in New York City can be ridiculous. In the summer it can sometimes reach over 100°F and people will be fainting of heatstroke, while in the winter you occasionally have to watch out or slip and die on black ice. Seriously, we can’t get a break.

 

A Mass Transit Experience

In my first semester of college I took a Cultural Anthropology course, mainly because it fulfilled a requirement. It did, however, give me a unique outlook on how I went about my daily life. For example, one of the assignments of the course was to ride a subway line from beginning to end. I feel that this was one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had riding the subway. For most people, the subway system is not a destination. People only take the subway to go to somewhere else. In that sense, the subway system is a sort of liminal space. But when I rode the entire 6 train line for my assignment, I wasn’t thinking about going anywhere, I was focused on the experience.

For most people, the subway system is not a destination. People only take the subway to go to somewhere else. In that sense, the subway system is a sort of liminal space. But when I rode the entire 6 train line for my assignment, I wasn’t thinking about going anywhere, I was focused on the experience.

Did you know, you can not only tell the difference in location by what is outside the train windows, but also by the shifts in population as you travel across different neighborhoods? The riders in the northbound stops are primarily African American, as the stops were in the Bronx, but as we went through Manhattan the riders became increasingly diverse. There was also the people in the subway, each of whom rode the subway differently. The loners, who sat by themselves and the couples, who had quiet conversations. The large groups of friends, who were loud and unashamed, and the performers, for whom the train was their stage. I remember seeing a mother loudly and publically discipline her child, and how people tried their best to politely ignore the commotion. New Yorkers are like that.

There was also the people in the subway, each of whom rode the subway differently. The loners, who sat by themselves and the couples, who had quiet conversations. The large groups of friends, who were loud and unashamed, and the performers, for whom the train was their stage. I remember seeing a mother loudly and publically discipline her child, and how people tried their best to politely ignore the commotion. New Yorkers are like that.

About Me and Transit Experience

 

ABOUT ME:

My dad was born in blue collar Brooklyn to a first-generation Irish American mother (whose father was chased out of Ireland for being in the IRA in 1922) and a German American father. My mom was born in London in the mid 50s, but grew up in what was then Yugoslavia (currently Croatia) and later moved to Astoria Queens. My twin brother and I are born and raised New Yorkers from the Lower East Side. I spent nursery through eighth grade in Catholic school (despite being an atheist) and another four years at Saint Vincent Ferrer High School (which is three block south of Hunter). I have had the same best friend since kindergarten and I am currently double majoring Mathematics and Environmental Science.

One thing that I love about living in New York City is the sheer number of people located in such a small area. There are roughly 8.4 million people in the five boroughs according to the United States Census Bureau (2013). People from almost every country and background are currently living and sharing their ideas and themselves, which in turn makes New York a globally cognizant and diverse city. This constant exposure to different people, ideas, ideologies, and life styles helps to connect New Yorkers with one another as well as make them aware of cultures outside that of the United States or their own backgrounds.

While the large and diverse population has helped to create a mostly accepting and (in my opinion) interesting environment, it also instills a sense of anonymity that can hinder forming close social networks. In a smaller town, it is easier to connect and get to know your neighbors on a personal level. In a large city like New York, it can be difficult to know the people in your own apartment complex, let alone everyone on the same block. This anonymity can make one feel isolated if they don’t have means or opportunity to connect with people outside of work or school.

Another thing that I like about New York City is that it has a number of beautiful parks. From Battery Park to Fort Tryon Park, there appears to be a patch of green grass or a few trees within walking distance where one can escape the concrete and hot asphalt of the city for a little while. The parks also provide the city’s resident with areas for recreational activities like sports or outdoor plays.

Another repercussion of New York city’s large population is the number of pets. Specifically, the number of dogs in the city. While I love animals, and am always ecstatic to see a cute dog walking along the street, one thing that I have noticed is that New Yorkers tend to be lackadaisical about cleaning up after their pets. Despite the numerous signs reminding people to “Curb your dog” and to pick up their waste, it is common to see the flow of humanity walking down the sidewalk part around a pile of dog poop in the middle of the block.

One last thing that I greatly enjoy about living in New York City is the amount of information, art, and history that is readily accessible. Not only do we have the New York Public Library system, we also have the American Natural History Museum, the Met, the Frick Museum, The Metropolitan Opera, The Museum of Modern Art, the Cloisters, the Brooklyn Science Museum, the Tenement Museum, and a multitude of other museums and galleries! George Washington took the oath of office outside Federal Hall and Alexander Hamilton is buried in Trinity Church. The history of New York predates the founding of our country and fixtures from the past stand side by side with our homes, schools, and local Starbucks.

MY TRANSIT EXPERIENCE:

The New York City transit system is both the arteries connecting all the boroughs together as well as a seemingly separate entity with its own reality and rules.While people cram into the middle cars by the entrance to the subway, the last two cars are usually empty. There seems to be at least one line with delays during rush hour and the local buses and trains sometimes outpace the express. While New York City buses “supposedly” have a schedule where a bus arrives every 10 minutes or so, it is not uncommon to see 3 m101 buses at the same stop and then not see another one for over an hour.

Two transit experiences that best sum up our city’s metro system occurred during my first two years of high school. Since classes started at 8 o’clock, I usually had to get up at 6 and leave the house by 7 in order to catch the 7:10 bus. One thing I noticed was that the same people seemed to be at the bus stop every single morning. There was “The Guy with the Cactus Bag”, “The Girl with the Black Purse”, “The Old Man with the Cap”, and “The Kid with the Backpack”. It became such a habit for me to see these people on my bus that I could usually tell what time it what based on who was at the stop (“The Guy with the Cactus Bag” was usually the first person at the stop while “The Kid with the Backpack” showed up just as the bus arrived).

My second interesting experience with the New York City Transit system occurred on my way home from school in freshman year. I was sitting in the back of the bus reading a murder mystery when the person next to me tapped me on the shoulder and excitedly informed me that the book I was reading was the basis for one of their favorite horror movies and then asked me what I thought about it so far. This encounter in turn lead to a 20-minute-long discussion about horror movies (of which this person was an enthusiastic fan). While I was a little weirded out by a random adult bouncing in their seat while discussing their favorite horror films, I feel like this experience highlights how people from all across the city connect, no matter how briefly or tangentially, with one another while traversing our city.

Personal Assignment and Transit Experience

My name is Glenn Collaku. I was born in Durres, Albania and was raised by my grandparents in Albania for about 5 years until I joined my parents in the United States. My parents and I lived in Queens for 4 years, which is where I learned to speak English, and then later moved out to Long Island where we currently live. I grew up in a household that strongly valued learning and was encouraged to have a strong work ethic. Once I began middle school, I joined the football team and later wound up joining every sports team that I possibly could. Sports and physical activity, in general, have been crucial to making me the person I am today. Since it was expected of me to do well in school, I had the overachieving mindset in the sports that I played as well, and it has carried over to my continued exercise now. I am a Nutrition and Food Science Major who plans to attend graduate school for Physical Therapy. Something I enjoy about New York City is the vast number of experiences to be had. New York City has almost everything, from eccentric dancers on the streets to some of the most impressive technological and engineering feats in the world. I also enjoy the fact that there is no shortage of opportunities in New York City. There are very few limits on what you can do or achieve if you work hard and recognize the opportunities. The subway system is also very convenient, despite the number of complaints people have about it. Since I haven’t lived in the city for long, I do not have many qualms, but the major issues involve the filth, smell and overall raggedness of certain areas. Many parts of the city look almost futuristic in terms of technology and appearance but some neighborhoods look neglected, and to some extent that cannot be helped because of the lack of wealth in those areas.

Transit Experience:

There are many bad experiences that can be experienced on the subway, but I would prefer to focus on an experience that made me and my friends laugh at the time. I try to maintain as positive an outlook on things as I can, so there is no need to harp on negatives. My friends and I ride the train every day from our dorms, and subsequently, the ride is usually monotonous and boring. Being relatively young people gave us the opportunity to watch Spongebob growing up, and this show wound up being the surprising catalyst of laughter in an otherwise quiet subway car. A teenager who was sitting down suddenly stood up and yelled: “What are they selling?”. In any other situation, most people would not get the allusion to Spongebob, but somehow at the same time I yelled back “Chocolate”, 5 or 6 other people did as well. We all started laughing at the fact that we answered back in near unison. I found this particularly interesting and doubt I will forget it for a long time because New York City is known for being a cold and unfriendly place but this insignificant moment shows how various random people in a reputably cold place actually do have common ground. Numerous other similarities can be found between the seemingly isolated residents of New York City, and despite this one being simple and meaningless, it was a memorable experience of connection and camaraderie in a place whose inhabitants are stereotyped as rude and unfriendly.

 

Glenn Collaku

Juliana’s Story and Subway Experience

Second Homes

by Juliana Maronilla

My father is from the Philippines (Manila). When he was in high school, he applied to several Ivy-League schools as a confident bright student. He got accepted into University of Pennsylvania and moved to America to study there for 4 years. Once he had completed four years at UPenn, he moved again to California, to work.There he met my mother*, who was studying at a California university, and they soon married. It wasn’t long though, before my father decided to go to graduate school, this time in Michigan at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Eventually, after having my sister and me, my father and mother moved to Scarsdale, NY (for work). We have been living there ever since.

I was born in Los Angeles, California, lived in Michigan for a short period and resided  in Scarsdale for 15 years. I grew up reading a lot of novels, swimming on several swim teams and attending a lot of church events. In particular, I went to a Christian camp with my family every year. I was a quiet child with braces, glasses and black hair. I played the cello in school and classical piano outside of school in the midst of a busy life. I enjoyed cooking and baking and eating healthy.

Now I am a student at Hunter College. I am a chemistry major on the pre-med track. I still am involved in the Christian and music community and travel back and forth from Scarsdale to the city. Moreover, I have been met with so much diversity at Hunter. I know only a handful of Hunter students from Westchester, as most are from the city. One of these students is in Hunter’s InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a club which I regularly attend. Another is an Afghan immigrant with ties to the Scarsdale High School orchestra, which I was part of in high school. Another is from my high school (we don’t talk). Another is a member of my home church, Ridgeway Alliance Church and a recent transfer to Hunter.

Several things I hate about the city involve people. I hate how isolated it can feel. I hate how normal diversity appears. And I hate how crowded the subways and Hunter halls can be.

Several things that I love about the city also involve people. I love how people exist on every block, and one never is alone when walking long distances. I love seeing the diversity at Hunter College. I believe it’s beautiful, because it’s a reality I never saw in my hometown. Moreover, I love the relative space amongst people-the fact that people can be friendly strangers and don’t necessarily have to be in each other’s business.

My parents came to America and at first viewed it like a foreign land. Unfamiliar and strange with different buildings and landscapes. Lacking their immediate family and hometown friends. Although I do not know what their experience was necessarily like, I feel like living in a city environment instead of the suburb community that I was part of for 15 years has provided me with a glimpse. The distance between Scarsdale and Grand Central via the Bronx River Parkway is only 23.5 miles, but the scenery, vibe and people are different. Coming to Hunter was mentally a nauseating experience, but over time it became my second home.

My Thoughts On the Subway (+MetroNorth train)

When I first came to the city in Fall 2015, I was very confused with the subway maps. The different colored lines and letters confused me, and I only recognized the green 6 line (between the 23rd/28th station and Hunter’s station). At the end of freshman year, I got the hang of the subway system. This year, like many Hunter students, I have relied heavily on the subway for transportation. Even more, I am using it to travel between Westchester and Manhattan. When I was a freshman, I always utilized the MetroNorth Railroad to go home, but I now take the Woodlawn 4 subway almost as frequently as the Grand-Central/North White Plains train. The Woodlawn 4-subway and the MetroNorth train are both boring trips to me as I travel without friends or family and don’t talk with anyone.

The Woodlawn 4-subway is more crowded than the MetroNorth, and provides a more awkward orientation as passengers face each other in a close arena. The Woodlawn-4 subway is also a longer trip; while the MetroNorth train takes 45 minutes, the subway can take up to an hour. Nevertheless, I believe the differences balances out. Even though the MetroNorth is a more comfortable and roomy trip, it often leaves me feeling isolated (unless I am taking a crowded 7:10 AM train on a Monday morning). And, the MetroNorth is pricier than the Woodlawn subway, $5-$9 more expensive. Moreover, the coziness in the Woodlawn subway makes it pleasurable to someone from a mostly empty-feeling suburb area. In general, I enjoy the subway rides, and believe it is a very unique experience.

About Me + Transit Experience

About Me

My name is Melanie Tan and I’m half Chinese and half Filipino. I grew up in Inwood, which is located in upper Manhattan.

One thing I like about NYC is that it is fairly easy to get around the city without a car, through the use of public transit. However, I dislike that sometimes waiting for trains and buses can take an extremely long time. I also dislike how dirty the subway is, although the fact that the NYC subway system is 24/7 makes me feel more lenient towards the uncleanliness of the subway. I also dislike how the MTA keeps raising the price of the fare. In my opinion, it is already quite expensive, especially for families with low income.

Another thing that I like about NYC is that there are lots of things to do if you go searching for them. You can go shopping, watch movies, walk in parks, etc. I also like that there are lots of places where one can buy merchandise related to their hobbies. For example, I am interested in anime and manga, and there are many places in the city where I can buy manga volumes and anime merchandise. Also, there are often conventions that people can go to to meet fellow fans. New York Comiccon is a convention that I go to almost every year provided that tickets haven’t sold out. I also like to draw and have a weakness for buying expensive art supplies every couple of months. Although I have mostly moved to drawing digitally, I still enjoy drawing traditionally and NYC has many art stores where I can browse for new materials and mediums to use in my artwork.

Transit Experience

In order to set the stage for this story, let me say that it was a perfectly decent hour in the morning, perhaps around 9 or 10 am. Let me also mention that I was riding the 1 train downtown, as I was heading from home towards Hunter College for a class that I had sometime around noon. Let me also say that I had another class after that one, one in which there was a lab report due.

I was finishing up the lab report in the train on my way to Hunter. Granted, there were only a few things left to type, like a confidence report and an uncertainty report.

Now, you wonder, how is this related to a transit experience?

I had my laptop on my lap as I was furiously typing up a storm while I was sitting in the train. Let me also mention that there was this woman who was either mentally ill or just couldn’t control the volume of her voice. Personally, I am leaning towards both. It was a hassle and was even more annoying than it would normally be since time was wasting away, each precious second had to count since the lab report was due later that day.

The woman kept screaming. I hated every second of it. That lab report just wouldn’t finish itself.

However, instead of just screaming she started going around bothering the other passengers… and then she made her way to me.

I had to stop my frantic typing as she towered over me and attempted to type on my keyboard. I had gently asked her several times to stop but she just didn’t listen to me.

Thankfully, a kind older gentleman came over to us and made her step away from me. He then escorted her out of the train where she was handed over to some police officers whom were at the station the train stopped at.

I sagged in relief for a moment before beginning to type again.

In the end, I never did finish that lab report… In fact, I submitted it the day after.

A Transit Story

Coming home from Hunter one day late in the evening, immediately after a particularly demoralizing exam, I took the 6 train downtown as I do every day. I happened to be on the train next to another person from my class as often happens when a class lets out and a gaggle of Hunter students pile onto the 6. We made small talk about the exam, but eventually settled into a somewhat uncomfortable silence. Someone started talking loudly across the car, which is not too uncommon on the subway, so I ignored it for a bit, until it became obvious that the source of the noise was moving closer to my end of the car. It turned out that the source of the noise was a middle-aged man, who was clearly very drugged up, shouting about his breakup. Still, somehow not too much of an uncommon sight on the subway, so I ignored it. Finally, the man pulled his wallet out, hugged the woman next to him and yells that at least money will never betray him, and  started handing out crisp 20 dollar bills. Now finally it was an unusual sight, namely because I’m not sure I know anyone who carries around the amount of money he had on him on an average night out. The uncomfortable silence between my classmate and I  only deepened. The tourist couple next to us laughed nervously, not knowing what to make of the scene. About half of the car had perked up and were laughing in disbelief or enjoyment, and the other half remained stony-faced.

My classmate and I both kept neutral expressions plastered on our faces, and without a word to him, unsure if I should say goodbye after such a long silence and with the car still in chaos, I stepped off the train at my stop.

About Me, Transit Experience

I was born in downtown Manhattan to two immigrant parents: one from Northern China, and one from the South. In China, their marriage would be considered strange by most of their peers, but in New York, no one could heckle them about their cultural differences. I spent the first few years of my life being taken care of by my maternal grandparents, however, because my parents were both busy working. When I was four, I came back to the U.S and started pre-K. From a young age, my family pressured me to follow the well-worn path taken by many immigrant children before me: do well in school, attend an Ivy League college, become a doctor, earn a six-figure salary and enjoy life with your spouse and children. It took me more than a decade to realize that although that kind of life sounds great, it’s neither a path which I am very keen on following nor one that best fits my interests and abilities.

So what do I do with my life? This question plagued me all throughout my junior and senior years of high school, and to this day I’m still not really sure where I’m going. I’m a firm believer that one should dabble in a little bit of everything, however, so I’m trying to make the most out of college and of life in New York City. Hopefully, everything will fall into place once I’ve found a lifestyle that makes me look forward to waking up each morning.


After spending elementary and middle school in Flushing, Queens, I gained a good amount of knowledge about the MTA when I started commuting to high school in downtown Manhattan. Riding the trains back and forth between Main Street and Tribeca every day was daunting at first, but it slowly grew on me and I came to appreciate how easy it was to get from A to B once I got used to reading the subway map. However, my naïve ninth-grade self soon learned the horrors of delays and service changes. From “train traffic” to “sick passengers” and the occasional “police investigation”, I’d like to say I’ve heard it all. Once, my express train was stuck on the tracks because it was snowing and the rails were icy. We sat in between stations for 30 minutes, inching forward bit by bit and listening to the local trains flying by, the click-clacking of their wheels laughingly mocking: “Who’s the slow one now?”

For a good three years, I was one of the many people who dismissed the MTA as a necessary evil that was incompetent and a waste of our money. However, after I learned about the long history of the subway in my New York City History elective, I realized that fixing the issues we see throughout the subway system today requires an insane amount of planning and funding. Although many aspects of our transit system are long overdue for improvements, things could always be worse. Ultimately, I do have to acknowledge that when there are no delays or breakdowns, the MTA is an efficient, budget-friendly way to travel throughout the city, and I might even be a tiny bit grateful that it exists.