004/366 - Going Up

On the way home from work tonight the train I was riding on was stopped for a while. The delay resulted in the train becoming an express with the next stop being my stop. Obviously I was ecstatic. This was in contrast to another woman on the train who was clearly upset that she would have to get off the train and wait for another one in order to reach her destination.

When I've been on trains that changed to express status in the past, sometimes you can tell people were grumpy about it. I would hear a few people mumble, "Oh man," and maybe hear some people cursing under their breaths. This woman, however, was more vocal than that. She yelled at the doors because they didn't open fast enough. She yelled when the train didn't leave the station right away. Finally, as the doors were closing, she said to no one in particular, "I'm sorry, I have no patience." But she didn't really seem sorry that she was a loudmouth and being annoying. I think she was just explaining herself to everyone, not actually apologizing for being loud.

At first I was annoyed by her behavior. Many people on the train were in the same situation, and this woman clearly couldn't suck it up. Even with my iPod on I could still hear her. But then I felt sorry for her. Imagine if you were of the disposition where having to get off a train that was running express and having to wait a few extra minutes would promote that kind of outburst. Even if it wasn't her normal disposition, imagine having a bad enough day that your reaction to a minor inconvenience was to let everyone on the train platform know that you have no patience. I don't think it would feel too good to be that person.