Time Waits for No One

Today is my first day of school. As I waited for an elevator that never came the other day I thought all about the concept of time and of making the most efficient use of it, even in the face of uncertainties like the subway or elevator. How do we integrate these elements into our daily lives and how many risks do we take?

When you wait forever for the elevator, do you just get impatient and take the stairs? or do you think that you have waited so long at this point that taking the stairs would probably end up taking longer than if, for instance, the elevator arrived in a few seconds, as it might.

It takes 30 minutes to get from point A to point B by subway, but I feel like I should build in 1 hour to my traveling time, always, just in case something happens. Then I will be early most of the time and just make it safely in time if something delayed the train for a bit.

I have a theory that I take the local train if it arrives first and I stay on it the whole ride even if the express also stops at my desired stop. I only switch to the express if I physically see it across the platform and can make the switch safely and without much fanfare. I hate to wait for the express when at least I could be travelling forward toward my destination on the local.

I think I tend towards the conservative end when it comes to travel in New York. After-all I am the girl who takes the bus to work each morning, even if its slower, because I want a seat and to stare out the window and think about things, without having to transfer, or be stuffed into a subway car-that might be faster, but not necessarily.