I never understand people who just sit on the subway doing nothing at all. They’re not listening to music, they’re not reading a book, they’re not flipping through a magazine. They’re not even looking at anything in specific. They’re just sitting there, day after day, spending their commute doing nothing.

Depending on how long the commute is, that’s probably a good hour and a half, each day, that could be spent doing something productive. They could be reading a newspaper to get more informed about current events. They could be reading a novel and broadening their literary outlook. They could be studying and taking online classes to expand their knowledge. Hell, they could even be listening to music and exercising their brain in some way, shape, or form.

But then again, maybe they already know something that I don’t. Maybe all this technology around us has made me forget what it’s like to simply sit back and relax. There is a constant pressure to make every single moment count, to spend every second being productive. Otherwise you’ll fall behind, you’ll miss out, you’ll lose the very slight advantage that you have over other people.

But maybe there is no competition. Maybe a need to be productive on our commute is simply a symptom of an over commercialized society. Maybe my desire to keep busy is simply subconscious consumerism designed by large corporations.

At this point in my commute, my eyes snap out of their blank stare and I glance around the train. The woman next to me is sitting quietly, her arms folded over her purse in her lap. I look down and continue reading.

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