Dangerous Subway Trend

Recently, I was on the Q subway platform at J Street when I saw a young man sitting on the edge of platform reading a book. It startled me. What was he thinking sitting there? I was told by a train conductor once, to never, never stand/walk on the yellow edge of the platform when the train was pulling in or pulling out, because he had seen a woman’s bag get caught and a tragedy happen. The thing about tragedies is that we don’t plan them, we don’t expect them, they just happen. And just maybe, every now and then, we are given a chance to see them coming before they happen.

And this was one of those times. I could see that perhaps if the train started to pull in and if he got up awkwardly, perhaps, he might lose his balance and fall on to the tracks. What he was doing was playing a game with death. Logically, he could have sat on a bench which is more comfortable than the bumps on the edge of the platform, but he had to perhaps prove that he was cool, if to no one but himself, because no one on the platform probably could care less, and I am imagining a few were wondering “Wha?” Yes, no one bothered to say a word to him, probably not wanting to get involved. I walked over because I cared and said, “Please don’t sit there.” He replied that the train wasn't coming for another 9 minutes, and I just shook my head and maybe I said, “no.” But I definitely shook my head. He got up, he wasn't happy, but he got up.

Ok, so the next day I end up catching the wrong train, the N instead of the R, and before I know it, I am way, out my way. I get off and have to go the other side to get the train back, when I see two female teenagers sitting on the edge of platform, and it appeared a friend of theirs was sitting on the bench behind them, not interested in playing this game of “chicken.” I walked up to them and said the same thing “Please don’t sit there.” They asked why not, and I said there was movie with some young kids playing the railroad tracks, and when the train came, one of the kids got his foot caught on the track, and he didn’t make it. One of the girls jumped up, while the other sat tight on the edge of platform with her legs dangling. Then the young lady that got up, sat back down again next to her friend. Apparently, the young girl that stood up didn’t want to look like a “chicken” in front of her friend. What was interesting to me, the friend that was on the bench didn’t seem to be the least bit interested in sitting on the platform edge. If that is what they were doing, then that was their business. My mother asked me once “If everyone is jumping off the roof, are you going to jump off the roof.” I literally stopped and thought about what she said, and the answer was “no.” If my friends were going to do something that was going to hurt me or anyone else, then they were on their own. That question didn’t steer me wrong then, and it looked like it wasn't steering the girl on the bench wrong either. She was going to catch the train, and she wasn't interested in doing what her friends were doing, just because they were doing it.

We have been given a brain to think with, to come up with solutions to problems, to figure out how to get from one place to another. It can also figure out the obvious, a train will kill a human body easily, and you don’t need to play games with your life to prove anything to anybody. The really brave person was the one sitting on the bench, because she was brave/confident enough to not let what they were doing pressure her, to do something she didn’t want to do. Maybe there weren’t jumping off the roof, but she didn’t need to play their game.

We don’t need a tragedy to happen for young people to smarten up, and figure out that if you’re dead, you’re not the bravest/the coolest/the biggest, you’re just dead. And all the things you could have done with your life are gone, and those so-called friends that maybe got you to do it, will feel bad, but they will move on with their lives, and will try to forget you. They’ll try to forget, because they won’t want to think about how they might be responsible for causing someone to die. Another reason not to play the game, because you don't want to be the survivor, and have to live with all that guilt.

So, parents if you have a young person tell them to be smarter than that, they don’t need to prove anything to anybody. And guess what you can tell them? Tell them that young people have been doing things like this for years, until kids die, and then the trend dies out. Or if you see someone sitting on the subway platform edge, ask them politely to "please get up." Let’s make this trend die out, before it kills anybody.