Commuting to work is a funny thing. Everyone has their schedule and their plan. People run like clockwork. Myself included. We leave our homes at the same time every day. We stop at Starbucks and order the same drink EVERY day. We arrive at the platform to wait for the T at the same time EVERY DAY. Because of this you start to see the same people over and over again and begin to recognize them. You don't know their names, where they work or what their story is. So although you're not "real" friends, you are however, commuting "buddies."
Every morning, I wait at the platform next to this woman who is pregnant. She is like REALLY pregnant. Probably eight or nine months. Most mornings the train is somewhat empty (we both leave for work pretty early and before the rush) so she sits right down and never has a problem finding a seat. Yesterday however, she got on the train and there were no empty seats.I kept looking around and everyone was clearly clueless to the fact that this pregnant woman was standing up on a packed train.
After about three stops, and right before I was finally going to butt in and saying something, someone stood up and said "I'm so sorry, would you like my seat, I didn't see you were pregnant!"
I then thought to myself "okay, phew, not everyone is a piece of SH** like I thought they were." It was a simple mistake. OBVIOUSLY no one would intentionally ignore a nine month pregnant woman...
And then this morning happened...
This morning I got on the train, with the same pregnant woman, at the same time, holding my usual Starbucks coffee. When we got on, the train was packed once again! As this woman walked down the aisle with her winter coat open because she can no longer zip it because she is very,VERY pregnant, no one flinched. Everyone could easily tell she was pregnant, yet no one moved. I waited three stops. I waited three stops and kept thinking that someone will move. Someone will realize, like yesterday, that she is pregnant and she will get a seat. I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't want to cause drama, especially at seven in the morning. And then the word vomit happened.
I tapped her on the shoulder and said "I'm sorry, but both of my sisters have had babies recently and I know that they too, would never ask for someone to give up their seat. I, however, would want someone to speak up and do it for them. So I am asking for someone to give this woman their seat."
No one moved. NO. ONE. MOVED.
After a couple really awkward seconds of me gesturing to people to move while also clenching my fists with anger, the pregnant woman looked at me and said "that is so sweet of you, but I feel bad asking, I'll be okay." At that moment, a woman stood up and said "you can absolutely have my seat, I have been trying to catch your attention." A few other people looked around as if they too were juuuust about to also offer, but let's be honest, they weren't.
As if this situation isn't infuriating enough, guess how old the woman was who gave up her seat? If I had to guess, I'd say she was about 65-68 years old. YUP.
I'm sorry for this Friday RANT, but this totally upset me. Like I said, I have watched my sisters go through multiple pregnancies and I know how difficult it can be, so I'm definitely hypersensitive to this, but the fact that all the young people on that train were totally unaware of their surroundings just agitated me.
Let's turn down the music volume, get headphones that don't cancel out every noise from here to the equator, look up from our books and stop liking photos on Instagram for long enough to realize that a nine month pregnant woman who is about to bring life into the damn world probably should have priority seating over a hungover college kid who went out drinking last night.
What would you do if this was your mom, your sister or your friend?
