Sometime around the age of 10, my babysitter took my friends
and I on our first trip downtown. She
initiated our first show on Broadway as well as fueling our inner fashion divas
by exploring all of Chicago’s highest-class clothing outlets. Nonetheless, this
excursion taught me something more about myself than just my dispassion with
Broadway and shopping-I became acquainted with my abiding love for trains, and
I plan to tell you why.
Consider which train passenger you depict. Are you a regular passenger? A once in a lifetime passenger? An every day passenger? Irrespectively, there remain more, much
deeper motives than merely prices, safety, and speed behind taking the train downtown
rather than a vehicle.
Here are 4 reasons as to why I personally believe a train is
your paramount verdict:
1. The people
There’s something to be said for being around people and
encountering human contact on a consistent basis. For those who’ve ever taken the train, you
can visualize the myriad dispositions that personify the atmosphere: the
faithful music lovers as they listen to their beloved tracks via headphones,
the sluggish children as they rest on a mother’s shoulder, the busy
workman/woman as they remain agitated with papers and phone calls, the
unfortunate homeless folks as they plead for money, the teenage concert goers
as they dress in tacky attire and gossip ever so loudly. You may even envision the not-so-sane
individuals that embark on your train ride as they utter, possible shout,
unruly words that receive unsolicited undying attention.
These people are here for a reason-to teach us how to
interact with all styles of people. We
become more intrinsically erudite of how certain passengers cooperate with and
react to one another, how some cope with stress, joy, irritation, how contrary
opposing sets of parents handle children, and more.
Even more, take the train to essentially meet these
people. Although making friends with
strangers by train isn’t a habitual occurrence, it sure beats the chances of
meeting others by car. Driving is
lonely, tedious; make your trip downtown compelling by conversing with those
around you. If it’s anything like my
risk-taking experiences, you’ll meet someone to spend your entire day with
downtown.
2. Timeliness
Being a train passenger entails punctuality. Whatever the purpose driving your visit
downtown, taking a train to and from your destination denotes a schedule to be
followed-to be at your precise track at the approximate or exact hour of
departure.
For those more serious businesspersons, you strategize the various
responsibilities of your career, ascertaining which meetings, conferences,
paperwork, or more take precedence of your day in order to accurately time
which train you long to board. For those
more carefree companions visiting for Chicago performances and hotspots, you plot
each moment, being certain to endure all desired entertainment within the
timespan before your train time parting.
So take the train to further enrich your time management aptitude. It’s undeviating minuscule decisions such as
these that contribute to our greater, overall selves; the more days we choose
the train, the more days we’re forced to be on time, the more days we acquire
timeliness.
3. Discovery & enhancing familiarity of areas/directions
I had blogged previously regarding my hesitance to pursue
traveling the world, expounding the potential lack of adventure in my life; I disputed
this assertion with my sundry findings of adventure within the place I was
born.
Chicago embodies 77 community areas alone. Being on the CTA ‘L’ train necessitates
passengers to read and pick up on street names, forcing them to make an
instinctive association between the name and the area so they know where to and
where not to stop. Even prior to the
arrival of Chicago, the train ride up encompasses the stopping and passing of
copious alternative towns, in which aside from having no objective to end
anywhere besides Chicago, you’re still pressed to looking out your window and
observing the town and its resembled environment.
You perceive the populaces within each part, making a
cultivated judgment of who comprises the area’s standing; for those every day passengers,
you begin discerning patterns of routine individuals, making conclusive
assessments of the area overall. A car
inhibits such experiences. You pass
these towns… but you fail to notice; you pass these street names… but you fail
to comprehend the area in which they remain; you pass these people… but you
fail to correlate their origins.
Your inclusive dexterity with directions expands. A car infers a GPS of some nature and since
you’re obliged to walking instead of driving to your Chicago endpoint, and the
walking GPS on an iPhone is significantly more arduous to trail, you’re
inevitably mandated to read each street name, note landmarks, potentially ask
citizens for help. Following directions
on foot itself can lead to novel findings of Chicago because you have no other
option but assiduously detecting where each step brings you-and if you’re not in
a time crunch to get back to your train’s departure time, you may even get a
little lost… and that, that is where genuine discoveries are built.
4. You need that hour or so.
For those employed or studying downtown, you need that hour
to sleep, catch up on some reading, finish last minute paperwork or homework, sip
your uplifting coffee.
For those purely visiting, you need that hour to grow
jubilant, get plans devised, take a few ‘snapchats’ of you as you depart, and
if you so happen to be embarking on your journey with an escort, you have that
hour to speak with him/her free of distractions in getting your minds on what’s
to come next.
It’s soothing, alleviating, a good wake-up lift, a fitting
excitement boost. It’s essential for
your day in downtown Chicago.
Take the train.
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