Lessons from a striking MTA

Have you ever watched the news with the kind of dispassionate curiosity where you logically understand the horrific events but your mind refuses to compute that they are actually real and happening and will impact your life?

That's how I was as I followed the news on the MTA strike unfolding in the city. Yes, I saw the bitter recriminations, stalled negotiations and threats to close the subway system. But somehow I saw it as a remote story unfolding in another land. Somehow, it still took me by surprise on Tuesday morning when I realised that my faithful 'E' train wouldn't take me to work anymore.

I expected the city to be crippled. But in fact, it conducted itself with remarkable orderliness. Everywhere, strangers were sharing cabs amicably, neighbours were carpooling willingly, people were walking miles across the city unfazedly - in fact, the manner in which the city took the entire event in its stride was humbling.

From my perspective, there was naught to be done really but to don hat-scarf-gloves-coat and trek through the polar weather for the three miles to work. And so, hardy trooper that I am, I did. Nearly lost a couple of appendages as victims of frostbite along the way, but all in all I reached work in generally functioning condition. When I finally made it in to work, Big Boss M took one look at me and packed me off immediately for a thawing coffee. "We can't lose our HR bod on her first day as a full-time employee!" he admonished. I would have smiled if my mouth wasn't frozen, but as such all I could muster was a botox-blank stare.

The second day I made the trek in to work, the whole ordeal somehow seemed much easier. It seemed warmer, it seemed shorter - although in reality it was neither. It's just that I was more prepared.

And the third day, the walk was even easier.

Now the strike is apparently over. Hurrah!!! The subway system will be working again. But you know what I learnt over the past three days? That now I'm used to walking in to work. More than that - I'm actually enjoying walking in to work. What a crisp and refreshing start to the day. And, as an added bonus, I'm actually awake when I reach the office. I think I'm going to keep at it even when the strike's off.

That way, when the next MTA strike comes around twenty years hence, I'm going to be the only one prepared.