Life of a commuter (Italy, A.D. 2019)
Being a commuter in Italy in 2019 is like being one of the Avengers straight from the Marvel cinematic universe.
I decided to be part of this crazy but also fascinating world when I realized that the best possible life for me and my family was not the stressing and suffocating one in the city but the simple and humane one of a small countryside town.
What’s the deal in waking up at 5.30 a.m. any given working day? Is there some kind of rewarding afterall?
Let’s start with people. Commuters are the worst and the best people in the world. Half of them talk to each other, or worse on their phones, with high-pitched voice. I’m amazed by how they can ignore everybody else besides all the basic good manners my parents spent so much time trying to teach me. The other half is silent, respectful and aware of a life that moves away from them as they try to move along with it. They’re kind, they let old people and pregnant women sit. And most of all they’re sleepy and with absolutely no will to chat or talk or gossip, as every average human being should be after waking up before even the sun shows up.
Do you want to know about trains now? Well, trains. Let’s just say they are not the state of the art. Italian railroads are mostly part of a public deal with private companies on regional basis. This kind of things do have some pros like a lower cost of one-way tickets or annual fee. In the cons you get a service not always guaranteed as it should be: old, I mean last-century-old trains, cancelled trains, broken trains, out-of-order or ridicolously hot/cold air conditioned and so on. Let’s just say that italian trains are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
Last but not least I’d like to spend few words about train staff, especially ticket inspectors. They’re mostly know as grumpy cop-minded people looking for a poor guy to sanction. But the truth is that they have one of the worst job in the world, quite as bad as being a commuter. A lot of freeloaders use trains to reach main cities. They’re all color, gender, size and religion. There’s no way to tell who’s the one travelling for free. Been there, seen that. Most of the time the inspector is alone and confronting even more than one freeloader. That’s why honest commuters feel a little satisfaction when the inspector catches the prey.
But the original question was about rewarding. Is there any kind? Is there a way to justify it all?
Well, if you are a father of two for example you may get a lot of free time to think, plan and usually overthink your day. Sleeping is almost impossible so you get the chance to watch something on your laptop or listen to music, using headphones so you can isolate those who do not use them. Many times I’ve been pretty close to seriously offering money to the guy sitting next to me so that he or she could buy the cheapest headphones on the market.
Commuters do have a lot of time to sequence their day so when they get to work they have already considered all the possible outcomes. That’s quite an advantage. Commuters do not fear glitches and unexpected events. There is no sudden detour for a commuter. They’re always one step ahead since their chance to get home may depend on it. When a commuter plans a vacation or a family trip things fit automatically. In the event of a nuclear warfare they could easily re-establish society. Ok, the last one is just a theory.
Commuters, middle aged ones at least, are great walkers and usually not fat. Being fat can seriously affect your chances to jump on a leaving train or to fit into a crowded bus. Survival of the fittest, right? They carry their things in a perfectly organized space inside a backpack or a purse. Space optimization brought man on the moon but commuters invented it.
One day, when Italy will be a modern country, people should ask for a monument to commuters. A monument for not driving everyday and, doing so, not increasing an already crazy traffic polluting our childrens’ life. One day, maybe even sooner than we expect, teleporting could be a reality. Can you imagine that? People entering one phoneboot-shaped device here and exiting somewhere else in less than a millisecond. Commuting would be just a memory.
Or maybe we will all be commuters.
