It’s one of the oddest human experiences—sitting inches from someone you’ll never speak to, never see again, but sharing a moment of silent, unspoken understanding. That’s public transport.
There’s something inherently intimate about it. You’re tired. They’re tired. You’re both just trying to get somewhere, headphones in, pretending the armrest isn’t a war zone. It’s awkward, yes—but also oddly comforting. A reminder that we’re all just humans in motion.
I’ve sat beside someone crying quietly into their scarf. I’ve seen teenagers share a single earbud and laugh at something I couldn’t hear. I once watched a man pull out a Tupperware of spaghetti and eat it with total confidence on a packed bus. No one said a word. He was a legend.
What’s fascinating is how quickly we adapt to this temporary closeness. You might nod if your eyes meet. You might shuffle bags to make room. Sometimes, in rare moments of public transit magic, you exchange a smile over something absurd—a pigeon flying onto the train, a baby yelling “Biscuit!” at random intervals.
Then there are the characters. The woman who recites poetry under her breath. The guy who plays chess on his phone like it’s a live tournament. The old man who tells everyone the weather like it’s breaking news. They become part of the commute’s mythology.
But the real beauty is the shared stillness. A crowd of strangers, each in their own world, yet moving together. No performance. No pretense. Just collective existence in a steel box with questionable air conditioning.
It’s easy to romanticize solitude, to seek out privacy and personal space. But there’s a quiet kind of connection in shared inconvenience. In the shuffle of bags, the sighs at delays, the synchronized eye rolls when the speaker says “We apologize for the inconvenience.”
And when you get off—when you step into your day, and they step into theirs—you take a piece of that shared humanness with you.
Sometimes, the most grounding reminder that you’re not alone doesn’t come from a deep conversation. It comes from sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone who’s just as tired, just as alive, just as human as you are.
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