Years of "the grind" will condition you into calculating your commute down to the minute, always fixating on the few seconds lost here and there that could have been scrounged together to afford yourself enough time to grab a coffee before your morning meeting. And when you're already behind schedule, the inevitable impatience that comes with the delayed train announcement usually gives way to irritation and the reminder that "if you had only left 5 minutes earlier, if you hadn't decided to change your outfit one last time or remembered where you had put your keys, you would have been on the train ahead of you and on your way." It's a strange feeling for a New Yorker to be grateful that they were running late. Still processing the shift of perspective that settled in when I found out why my train was held, after struggling in vain to bypass 36th St. and weighing my options of a $50 Lyft or a Citi Bike ride through the rain. While I'm grateful that I was running 5 minutes later than I had planned, it's impossible to imagine the panic and terror that everyone who did make it on that train must have felt. It's something that no one should ever have to experience. This city has a way of hardening you, especially during a rush hour commute. But it's also a community of people like no other, people who don't deserve to be fearful of their morning routine. Reminding myself that it's okay to slow down, and more importantly, to have a bit more compassion for the slow-walkers. At the end of the day, we are all one community moving in the same direction.