It was a beautiful day in New York City for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Not a single person was seen without something green on, bagpipes and marching bands constantly played music down 5th avenue, and intoxicated people made the walk from place to place slightly interesting. My friends and I had an awesome time at the parade and I would highly suggest it to anyone wanting to go next year, but we almost didn’t make it there.
We woke up early in hopes of getting to the city early and starting our day while trying to avoid the massive groups of high school kids taking the train in as well. We failed, and we arrived at the station to 25 or so high schoolers ready to go crazy in New York. As we boarded the train, we walked into a car that was packed with kids from the stop before ours. It was pretty much a fraternity party aboard an NJ Transit train – they had music blasting on a speaker, it was too cramped to move, and once we walked on, we were hit with the strong smell of marijuana. My friends and I immediately left to go into another, calmer, train car so we could eat our green bagels in peace.
As we traveled, we could see the chaos that was happening in the car that we decided to avoid. There were too many people crammed into the car, and those who were in it were being rude to the NJ Transit workers. They would bounce the car up and down while it was in motion through their partying. It was too early in the morning for me to deal with, and I am thankful that we moved.
We eventually stopped at one of the stations on the way to pick up more people for New York. But, the train stayed in the station much longer than we thought was normal. It was odd that we weren’t moving, but we heard through a few people in front of us that the cops had been called by the NJ Transit staff in regards to the party car. Of course, we were irritated that we wouldn’t get into New York as quickly as we had wanted, but there were people on our train who were trying to get to work and would be late on the account of those inconsiderate people.
After about twenty minutes, we saw the police come and contain the train car. They said that the train would not leave until whoever had marijuana on the party car came forward. Since no one did, we ended up sitting at the station for about 35 minutes, eager to go and aggravated by those people. Eventually, the police made everyone in that car leave the train and line up along the fence outside, so that we could stay on schedule and get to New York. At that moment, I had never been more angry with people or grateful that I moved cars.
After our little obstacle, it was all smooth sailing for the rest of the day. But one lesson should be learned from this whole fiasco at the train station, and it is that we should be respectful to others, no matter what we are doing. Sure, St. Patrick’s Day is a huge party day, but save it for New York. Don’t inconvenience everyone else around you just so you can have a party on the train before you get to the party in the city. Be courteous and considerate in everything you do – it goes a long way.