While
leaving the chiropractor’s office, and getting into the A train. I
decided to sit right next to these amazing little African American kids
(ages of 8, 9, 11 and 12) who were being loud and, some people can
say “annoying”. While sitting there, I decided to listen to my favorite
DJ, Kygo, on Spotify. Minutes later, I look up to see the following:
- Everyone is quiet looking down
-One of the kids is holding his neck (crying so loud)
- The other kids are next to him telling him to “Shut the fuck up”
While
all of this is happening, none of the adults did anything to solve the
problem. All they did was stare at them and make faces of annoyance.
This was a moment for me to remember that NYC is a huge city with lots
of people, yet we have forgotten to be giving and caring; in other
words, this society tends to be very selfish at times. They just forgot
that these kids needed some guidance and no one dared to help.
This
was a moment that I took 2 seconds to think about what I should do
since I am sitting right next to them. When I looked at the kids, they
just stared at me and I started by asking the following:
Me: What happened?
Kid 1: I smacked in against the seat (these seats are so hard and uncomfortable).
Me: Why would you do that?
Kid 1: Because he was annoying.
Me: Well, I was hit by you guys 3 times but I did not smack anyone. Did I?
Kid 1 and 2: No you did not.
While
the child is still crying, I am trying to stop him from being loud and
call the attention, which after 5 minutes I did that. We made a
connection and it felt amazing! Everyone else was looking at me as if I
had 3 heads and 5 arms.
What made this trip an amazing experience was the following:
I
asked them if their math tests were easy or hard and all of these kids
said it was easy. My second question whether if they had good grades. 2
out of the 4 students said they had really good grades and that math was
easy for them. I immediately continued the conversation by asking them
about the drumming while in the subway. They told me they were just
having fun. I told them I was horrible at drumming because I am not
coordinated. They told me to follow them and do exactly what they were
doing, which, I did and they were cheering after this. After that, I
asked them what else are they good at and they started rapping to “milk
and cereal” which was a song they created on their own! I was shocked
because we all had fun and the crying child forgot about crying and
started rapping with us! The interactions we had amongst ourselves had
other people listening and looking at us with smiles in their faces. My
teacher persona came out and I told them I was getting off at the 125
stop and that I needed them to not be too loud and be respectful with
each other. They did their math and told me exactly how many blocks away
from me they live. One even said: “I’ll save your seat and no one would
take your spot”. We had a truly, solid, human interaction in which the
teacher learned about them and they learned about me. Would I ever see
them again? I do not know, but they changed my perspective and my
judgement.
Children are children, it is up to us
to show them gratitude and teach them the greatness of the world;
however, we are also humans and we are constantly learning. I definitely
learned about their different type of intelligence different
individuals possess and I learned that I do not want to be selfish and I
want to act when someone is in need. It is a story I wanted to share
with y’all.
#nycsubwayexperiences
