Long rides to and from classes waiting for the train to pull up to the station. I sit and wait, as soon as the train pulls up, with wheezing on the tracks and the smell of metal running through the wind. I jump up and get on the train. I sit in the train for what seems like hours, boarding watching as people get on, and off. As I watch the buildings and landmarks pass by. I waited for a good ten, twenty minutes.
I get off that train just to wait for the next train to pull up to that station. I sit impatiently waiting for ten to fifteen minutes. I start pacing slowly and finally the train gets there, crowded and filled to the brim with people. There are always the same types of people. One of the most recurring types of people was homeless people.
They always asked around for money, weaving through people till they got something. If they could get some money they would get off before the train would leave. If they did not get anything they would stay and ask around at the next station. I weave through everyone and hope to get an actual seat, but most of the time I would have to stand.
I would be on that train for even longer than the last, always changing the activity that I did. Sometimes I would sleep, or read, and occasionally I would do homework. At the end of every trip I would hear “Stadium” which queued me to get off. I went to class, and right after the class I would get back to the train station with no complications.
Waiting on the train over all the voices of students talking about their school, and other random people telling their life story. I would wear “Central Station '' and I would get off the train and all around there were homeless people.
They were everywhere, riding bikes, and begging for money. They would cross the trax and knock on the windows of cars.
A few of them even ask me “Do you have any spare change?”
I see that they need it, but I usually do not carry change so I reply “Sorry, no”. I see their faces disappointed as they walk to the next person begging them for the little they can get their hands on. I look over across the street and there are tents, tarps, and sleeping bags/blankets with very dirty people communicating amongst themselves. I watch and notice they are ready to be out there for days, maybe even longer.
It is kind of like they have a whole community for the homeless, they just don't have shelters for everyone. Suddenly the whistling of the train gets louder, and there is the train. I hop on, and head home.
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