Member-only story
A TRUE STORY
Strangers On The Bus: Meeting Young Sephora
The gift of connection amid the morning rush hour crowd
I was among the standing passengers on a local NYC transit bus on the way to work when it stopped at the stop just before I was to debark, and a tide of people ushered in through the back door.
Among the wave of onboarding passengers was a girl of eight or nine with braided hair, dressed in her school uniform, a giant bookbag on her back, and an opened paper bag revealing the edible treasures of a recent bodega (corner store) trip in her other hand.
I watched this young girl pull out her electronic card and repeatedly tap the bus reader to pay her fare.
I was proud of her. On the Select (SBS) buses in New York City, people can pay at any of the three doors they enter. But on the local buses, you can only pay at the front. Often, I watch crowds of people board the SBS and local buses, not making any effort to pay.
This young girl knew she had a civic duty to pay her fare. She tried, repeatedly tapping her card to the face of the reader. After multiple attempts, she shrugged and gave up, satisfied with her efforts and realizing the card reader did not work.
