This blog post is different than any others I've published so far on my site. I felt compelled to share a little of what happened to me on March 13, 2018, while I was heading home on the train after work. I've left out several details, but the key components are below. As I'm writing this blog post, it hasn't been officially a week since the incident. My life has been dramatically changed forever.
The Ride Home
It was just like any other Tuesday. I waited patiently for the train to arrive and watched as other passengers approached the platform where I was standing to wait for their trains. My train arrived at approximately 3:05 p.m. and I boarded; little did I know, it would be the longest 20 minutes of my life and unlike any other trip home I had ever taken. As I boarded the train, I quickly realized something wasn't right. The expressions on the faces of the passengers were of shock. I decided to sit three seats away from the door and I quickly scanned the inside of the car. I realized a man was standing near one of the doors with a boombox. As the train started moving, he proceeded to play "music" from the boombox which consisted of a siren from a fire truck and a fire alarm. While the "music" was blaring, he started screaming with the sound and proceeded to walk away from me through the aisle of the car. When we approached the next stop, he stopped playing the "music" and halted his screaming episode. Once the train started moving again, he proceeded to continue with the same behavior until he appeared to become upset and started yelling that he wanted to "see us burn."
The next several stops became more tense. I wanted to get off the train as fast as I could, but I didn't know whether it would cause him to do something even more intense as I noticed a backpack that appeared to be for camping or hiking. As the train continued to move, the man became more hostile. During one point on the train, he screamed that he wanted to "see our rotting corpses" and added he wanted us "gone from the face of the earth." After he made those remarks, several passengers walked to the other side of the car to get away from the man as he went on his tirade.
The most traumatic part of the trip was after he had finished screaming, I witnessed him reach into his backpack. During the time he was preoccupied, I had a thought that no one knew what was in the backpack and it could potentially end up being a tragedy for all of us. My life seemed to flash before my eyes and I didn't know if something was going to happen. I had to decide what I was going to do next; I thought about all of my options and had a plan in mind. Luckily for all of us on board, the man decided to pack up everything and get off at the next stop. The entire
Why I'm Sharing a Piece of My Story
I've never experienced anything like this incident before and it made a huge impact. Beyond the fact that the man should seek help, it's always important to remember that our lives aren't guaranteed. What I learned was that anything could happen at any time and the future is completely unpredictable. I've always known that fact, but it's different when experienced in person.
If you can take away one thing from what I've shared, my hope is that you have a better appreciation for your life. I know I don't look at anything the same way I did before the incident. Many things make me smile more than I ever had in the past; feeling the wind blowing my hair around, smelling the flowers outside, and even hearing my neighbor walking around their apartment upstairs. I've decided what is really important in my life and I'm never taking that for granted. Life is beautiful, fragile, and is shorter than you'd expect. Stop putting things off until tomorrow because you never know what could happen.