It's been a little over a year since I started a 9-to-5 job. In fact, prior to taking my current position, I'd always worked unconventional jobs. You know, the kind where you live out of a suitcase, or get paid in cash, or work all weekend for the bulk of your income. So, most of my experiences taking the L downtown occur before nine am - packed train, morning hustle, silent, groggy chaos.
On Monday, though, I got to take the train through the Loop in the late afternoon. I took the day off work to study for my mid-term, and I was riding the Blue line south toward UIC. If you've ever spent an entire weekend and a whole workday at home with your nose in a graduate-level textbook, you know how weird it makes you. You look up at the clock and realize that two hours have gone by. Your coffee is cold and your cigarette has burned out. Your living room doesn't look like it should. And talking to people? Forget about it. After expending all that brain power on abstract concepts, you're pretty much socially retarded.
As I stood on the platform waiting for the train, the still-high autumn sun beaming down on Chicago, I got a good look at the people I used to see everyday when I headed off to wait tables. Pregnant Latinas, grocery clerks, college students and everyone else that lives too far north. Further down the line, the train pulled into the Clark street stop and I watched from my seat as the car exhaled a flurry of people, only to inhale still more. Peppered with people, the Blue line rolled through the Loop in quiet reflection, just another ride, just another day.
By the time the train was headed West out of the Loop, a different set of people had taken the car: professionals leaving early, students living on the edge of the downtown, West side workers heading home after a day spent taking out the garbage in gleaming office towers. And me, the erstwhile grad student.
Image via RieBo
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