I was someone blending in with those who also wanted a seat on the train. The train doors wheezed open and I darted into it, holding my possessions close. Seeing a place that was empty-bodied, I gripped the bar attached to the top of the seat in front of t<\/span>he one to be mine and used it as leverage to get into it before the person who also had their eyes on it was able to take it. I rather prefer the seats without fabric in a train, because although\u00a0<\/span>they\u2019re<\/span>\u00a0both dirty all the same, in my mind I feel as though<\/span>\u00a0it\u2019s cleaner without the extra material. The design is tacky anyway, with a blue background and erratic, colorful shapes. I tried not to think about how many people had touched the same bar I had just put my hands on moments ago and wondered when I would\u00a0<\/span>finally remember to buy hand sanitizer.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I got one glance of a small, half-bald Filipino man running with a dark, brown satchel, strapped across his body rather than resting on one shoulder, in the lane between the seats before\u00a0<\/span>he basically<\/span>\u00a0jumped into the<\/span>\u00a0one next to me. He was out of breath, trying to push slowly through his nose in a way where someone was trying to hide it. I felt fortunate that I\u00a0<\/span>didn\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0have to stand, considering it was about an hour train ride to Rosemont. My feet hurt like hell from w<\/span>earing the wrong shoes to walk miles in on busy streets, and my mind was tired from too many city stimuli.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I tried not to make eye contact with people around the train as I avoided looking at my phone with a 3% battery. With so many people, I found that t<\/span>rain rides are more quiet than loud with conversation. Those who try\u00a0<\/span>are usually stopped<\/span>\u00a0by the sometimes violently loud ride, especially under the echoing tunnels. Closing my eyes that were dry from wearing my contacts in too long, my mind catches convers<\/span>ation. The couple, possibly in their twenties, supposedly both have bruises from crowd surfing at a concert together while holding hands.\u00a0<\/span>I imagine how they crushed sweating people beneath them and pulled tightly on one another until their nails scraped ag<\/span>ainst each other\u2019s skin.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I felt soft pressure on my left arm. Slightly startled, I looked in the man\u2019s direction to see him sleeping, and he began to slink more towards me. I thought of how\u00a0<\/span>I\u2019ve<\/span>\u00a0only ever seen this in movies or in pictures, but now it was\u00a0<\/span>happening to me. My dilemma began. I wondered what his stop was, if he was going to miss it, and whether or not I had to courage to wake up a tired, old man.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I was preoccupied with this in my mind up until I was about three stops away from mine. I felt bad<\/span>\u00a0for the man. I felt bad for the fact that he was so tired that he fell asleep resting his full weight onto a stranger\u2019s side (even though I didn\u2019t mind) and that he sat next to someone who didn\u2019t have it in them to make sure he got off the train at the ri<\/span>ght time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I had to get ready for my exit in two stops. I gently searched through my purse with my hand until I grabbed the familiar material of the lanyard to my keys. Dragging them through all my items, they came out with a pair of earphones tangled onto\u00a0<\/span>them. I tried to jingle my keys more loudly on purpose, and I surely began to move more in my seat. A fast and short breath came from the man in way where you were close to drooling in your sleep but suddenly were able to wake up just in time. I tried to s<\/span>ee him from the corner of my eye as he frantically realized where he\u00a0<\/span>was, made sure he had his things, and full on bolted towards the just opened train doors<\/span>. I saw him run just a few more steps as the door closed and the train that I\u00a0<\/span>was on started<\/span>\u00a0moving<\/span>\u00a0again. I wondered about the man and if he was ok.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Laura Augustaitis I was someone blending in with those who also wanted a seat on the train. The train doors wheezed open and I darted into it, holding my possessions close. Seeing a place that was empty-bodied, I gripped the bar attached to the top of the seat in front of the one to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-96","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/14-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/14-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/14-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/14-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/14-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/14-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/14-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/14-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}