"Mind the Gap"

Sometimes I wonder how do these things happen to me? Kinda like that time in high school, it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and we were having these workshops in our school auditorium, you know the ones that inform you about racism, civil rights, our country's most influential leaders in social change and how they risked their lives for the opportunities our generation today can enjoy. Well there I was 16 year old Meddy day dreaming about Bernard Schwartz my most recent heartache who had now moved on to Sarah Tovey… I mean he walked me home and held my hand!! I thought we were like totally together!
“Isn’t that right Meddy?.... Meddy? Meddy?” that was when our teacher Ms. Franklin who was leading the “Attitude over Aptitude” discussion had apparently used me as an example in relating work ethic with my lacrosse skill (essentially giving me a compliment) and my friend Weston chimed in with “well apparently Meddy doesn’t have to work hard!” and I instinctively just yelled out “SHUT UP BERNARD”.. mind you Bernard was not even in the room…. nor part of this discussion.. it just simply flew from my thoughts to the silent room only to be met by confused stares and then some hushed laughter. CRINGE.

Then there was that time I was in biology class when I was participating in a cloning debate and referenced that sheep, "The Dolly" and instead referred to it as the Dalai Lama.. can you imagine.. them cloning the Dalai Lama?!
Or even that time when my mom wrote out directions for me and she wrote "the house with the red Cherokee in the driveway" and the whole time I was looking for some Native American lawn ornament.. like some gnome or something!?

This is just part of my nature I suppose, so I should not have been so shocked this past Tuesday morning when an event equally as embarrassing occurred.

In an effort to shake myself from my vacation withdrawal blues I walked to the subway with a refreshing new playlist on my ipod. It was a beautiful morning, people sprawled out in the park, horns beeping, sun shining, cars rushing, beautiful skyline, and I just realized, “WOW, I live in New York City.. New York City!!” This is one of the most amazing places in the world! People dream about living here, I even flashed a smile to the miserable man who sells me my kombucha. So as I swiped my unlimited metro like an old pro, I waltzed down the steps to a train that had conveniently just arrived kinda like it new I was coming.. it all felt so routine.. dare I say I was becoming a native or at least adapting?

But just as I got to the train the doors started closing and as I hesitated getting on I stepped back and my leg went down the space between the platform and the train the thing that those annoying recordings warn you about “MIND THE GAP WHEN ENTERING THE TRAIN” but no one ever actually thinks their own leg will slip between that space. So I had one leg in the train (doors closing) one leg down the space between the train and the platform and Im like SCREAMING the train is about to take off and this man thankfully heaves me out and onto the floor of the train. I peeled myself off the floor and reluctantly looked around at a silent traincar of people with their jaws dropped and shaking their heads I even heard one woman mutter “idiot”. Welcome home.