Lewis wakes up to a new day, full of possibilities, yet full of uncertainties. How calm the silence is… It would be a pleasure to stay in bed to admire such beauty, but he cannot. He must be up in time for his first lecture. Time is of the essence…

With great effort, he thrusts himself out of the safety and comfort of his bed. As usual, he follows his stringent, machine-like routine of the morn, not wanting to waste an ounce of time. Why doesn’t he take his time? Maybe he just wants some sleep on the train? Was that the reason why? Who knows?

Completing the routine with such swiftness and precision, Lewis is already out the door, heading down for the nearby N train station.

The street, as expected, is empty, barren, lifeless… Not minding much of the surrounding, Lewis continues to enjoy the silence, often interrupted with the occasional ambulance sirens and birds chirping. It was annoying…

Nevertheless, Lewis makes his way into the station, just as the train arrives. Was the train expecting his arrival?

Entering the train, he quickly finds a seat to continue his unfinished duty: to sleep. Just as swift as his morning routine, Lewis dozes off into a trance, occasionally waking up to see what stop it is.

Sitting across from him was Old Jenny. Seeing the sight of Lewis disgusts her, with his mouth wide open and head bobbling to the motion of the train. How could someone sleep like that? Did his mother teach him any manners?

Thankfully, in a city like this, she will never have to see Lewis again, filling her mind with absolute delight. As she gets off her stop, she glares at Lewis one last time and promptly leaves the station, never to be seen again.

Much time has passed until Lewis wakes up from his daily subway slumber, just a stop before 23rd Street.

Leaving his station, he takes the usual walk from 23rd St. Broadway to 24th St. Lexington Ave., arriving at Baruch College.

Vivian Chan laughed when she headed out of her house to see her friends tread lifelessly down the road, greeting them with a smile that was not welcomed by the other two as one of them said, “It’s too early to be smiling this.” The three then headed towards the Bay Parkway N train station quietly, each listening to their own music as Vivian tried to pull her headphones out of her messy bag. Vivian finally managed to find it but dropped the other things in her bookbag pocket, not realizing she had abandoned a pack of gum behind until someone called out to her. The stranger clad in a thick green coat passed the pack of gum back to the girl. Did she leave her mind back in Sunday? 

The train arrives shortly after and the girls board the train. One of Vivian’s friend gets off at a stop earlier to get to her high school while Vivian and her other friend got off the express N train at Union Street to transfer to the local train. The local train was already waiting at the stop. The duo took the train for one stop and got off at 23rd ST. They arrived at Baruch ten minutes later.

It is a nice sunny day today—but just a little too cold. Minghui Zhang tucks her head in her jacket’s collar, half awakes. Is the door locked? Does she have everything? She paces up a little, going straight to the bus stop—is the bus here yet? Is the station crowed? Will she able to get on the bus?

She crosses the street. The bus is not here yet. She checks her phone and the app says that it would be here five minutes. She reaches for her metro card and stands aside when she sees a person smoking, frowns a little but does not say anything. John Swell notices the girl in the black jacket, remembers her. A quiet girl living next door with her family, probably just reached eighteen years old…or a little older than that? Can’t really tell, it is always hard to tell Asians’ ages; but he knows that she is Chinese, from a communication that he heard once when he was watering his plants at the front yard. He sees her holding her phone with her left hand, checking the time.

The bus finally arrives. She immediately covers her ears when she hears the sound of the bus tires, so sharp that makes her recalling the sound of nails scratching on blackboard—probably not as severe, but still. She lines up and already can hear people talking in the bus.

Lovina walked to the 6 train from her building, during the two minute walk she suffered from the chilly weather. Why had she decided to go outside that day? The uphill battle from third avenue to Lexington was tiring her out already. Approaching the train, she got ready to pull out her metro card and run down the stairs. The twenty-minute ride seemed so long due to the crowded hot sticky atmosphere. This only tired her out more. When she arrived at 23^rd street she made a beeline towards Starbucks.  The change of atmosphere was almost startling, it was unbelievably busy with a bustling loud crowd of students ordering and waiting for their morning fix of caffeine. At that moment she realized she had only ten minutes to make it to the vertical campus and hope that the dreaded elevator would come in time for her to sprint to class. She made it just in time but not before knocking into Tina who stared her down and looked down upon her, but Lovina couldn’t be bothered because she had one mission, which was just to get to class.

Ana headed off to school early today. As she walked to the bus stop the sun shined down on her and almost blinded her. After she regained her sight, she saw an old lady waiting at the stop as well. It was Mrs. Sawyer, her neighbor from across the street. Ana is early today, thought Mrs. Sawyer, usually she’s not around in the morning. “Good morning dear” she said. Ana smiled and nodded. Such a quiet girl!

The light turned green and the bus pulled to the side, letting them both on. On the bus the driver drove quickly over the bumpy roads. As she struggled for balance, Ana remembered the bus ride to New York a few years ago. It was very rough and she got really car sick. As time pasted by she got a little bit more used to it. Soon the bus arrived at the station and she got off. What a relief!

Clarissa once described her feeling for Sally as a match that burns in a crocus. This imagery of her love with Sally was so intense that I couldn’t help but wonder why did she ended up marrying Richard but not Sally?

It’s going to be a bad day. She just know it. As Jo Yee makes her way towards her bus stop at 23rd Ave, she was met with the cold autumn breeze. When the Q65 (Limited Jamaica LIRR) bus finally came, she sighed in relief. “Finally!!! Warmth!!!”, said Jo Yee. Just like Jo Yee, Richard Longbottom was relief by the sight of the incoming bus. As he stares at Jo Yee, he thought what a puny child she is. “She probably won’t said anything if I cut right in front of her”, thought Richard. Just like that, Richard made his way into the bus by forcing himself through the entrance. “Urghh!!”, thought Jo Yee. What a day to be alive! What a drag! As she angrily makes her way to Baruch College.

Igor walked down my steps to my automobile, dark as the night, dark as today’s morning. As he walked with his hands full, Igor thought, “My coffee better not spill.” Bringing all the necessary items for the day resembles the circus: books, chargers, computer, water. Its all overwhelming yet plays an important role in the performance. Passing the speed camera, he couldn’t believe that it was still up. Everyone and their mother know that it’s there. “How does the city still make money off of it?” he asked himself. Driving through darkness, Igor thought to himself that the coming of winter extends the darkness in the morning. Yet, it is contradicted by the weather. It is quite warm this morning, going up to a high of seventy degrees. On the Long Island Expressway, Igor listened to 1010 Wins to hear his morning brief before the sun rises. Two police officers ambushed and killed in Iowa, no suspect found yet. A new tragedy happens everyday, slowly making him numb and accustomed. As he merged onto Lexington Avenue, he noticed Jean, a traffic officer directing the flow of cars out of the tunnel. As he tried to squeeze through the light, Jean gave Igor a deadly look, as if the intersection was his home and he was a burglar. The officer’s face flared up with anger, wondering how this was possible. There was no way he can let this go, yet his duty calls to prevent the city from gridlock so he must return to his duty. However, if Jean tried to give out tickets for these kinds of violations, he would be out of orange envelopes within an hour.

Judy was wondering if there was a rat running across the track. One by one people walked by her trying to get to their destination as she waiting for the train. There was a storm of hot wind in the cramp station as the train was about to pull into the station. She asked herself “am I going to be late to class”? She gets on a packed train three stations from school and run out of the station on 23rd street. Will she make it to class? Getting out of the train watching the gap between the train and the platform. The same routine of going through the same turnstile and then walking up the stairs to the street. Waking on to the street thinking that the sun would have risen but its still dark out. Judy wants food but doesn’t want to be late for class. Wondering whether to grab breakfast and be more late or getting to class first and be a little late. Running to class without getting breakfast because class was more important to her then getting breakfast. Did she make the right decision? Judy gets to school and bolt up to the 8^th floor to her class. Already late but what made it worst was the eyes on her as she walked up the stairs to her seat in the big lecture hall. Mr. Professor was not happy someone was interrupting his class. Who is she? She probably one of my students failing the class because she’s late. Everyone should be early to my class if they are late then they are lazy and doing bad.

Victor stepped out of the apartment and said while yawning “What should I listen too to wake myself up” as he made his way down the the station.

As Victor entered  the front most train car he mumbled to himself that he should continue where he left off in his story. The scenes that played out brought Victor to a world of heroes fighting villains with dashes of comedy mixed in. Scenes reminiscent to the days of Victor at eight years of age as he made his way to the college.

At one point Victor rose his head from his story and took note of Delsin. A young teen on his way to school. Delson looking over Victor’s story and asked “Is that story any good I’ve been thinking about getting it”. Victor reply only being a nod of his head and a thumbs up before turning his attention back towards the other world.

As he waited for his destination of union square to arrive Victor took note of those around him the swelling crowd of people slowly occupying the metal can. Only to disperse as quickly as they came when they arrived together for the next leg of their journeys.

When Victor left the cool dim tunnels and into the early light of day he resumed using his ears for entertainment instead of his eyes. The notes playing gave way to energizing impulses as Victor began to quicken his pace towards the school.