According to ysop.org, each year there are about 100,000 New Yorkers that experience homelessness.  When I first read that statistic, I was shocked, but then as I contemplated on how many homeless people I see each day riding our trains, this number made a bit more sense to me.  My commute from home to CCNY is about an hour, therefore I spend two hours each day on a train.  In those two hours, I usually encounter about three or four homeless people begging for money.  I was taught not to give money to those who asked for it, because there is always that possibility that they would use it to fuel an addiction.  Though many times I am not willing to offer cash, I am always willing to offer any extra food that I may have.  

I am aware that one homeless man chooses to sit on a crate in the Woodhaven Blvd. subway station.  He has a cardboard sign that sits between his feet, but I never take the time to read what it says.  One day though, I had an extra slice of pizza and offered it to this man.  I knew he would be hungry but how quickly he had taken it surprised me for some reason.  It seemed like with a blink of an eye, the slice had disappeared from my hands.  That split second of my life really made me appreciate all the little things that I am blessed with.  

Oodle Noodle

People have been blessing our city trains with performances of all kinds since the beginning of its existence.  From my experience, I have witnessed instruments being played, dances being performed, and even magicians practicing their craft.  If you have ridden our trains at least once, you probably have seen one of these performances.  Personally, I am always looking forward to these routines, because the talent riding among us can be  astonishing.  Though this is normally the case, you may still come across a performance that is not so impressive.   

This is a tale of a dance routine gone wrong.  I was coming home from class on the E train in Queens, when a young man, who could not have been older than twenty, entered into the car from one of the emergency exits singing the chorus from "I believe I can fly" by R. Kelly.  His confidence in his voice reminded me of a bad American Idol audition from a person who was told all his or her life that he or she can sing.  Luckily for his audience, that was not where his performance ended.  He exclaimed to us that his friends refer to him as "Oodle Noodle", and that we would see the reason why when his dance began. He took out his phone and played the song "Dance" by Big Sean, and began clapping his hands.  His body did move in interesting ways, almost like a snake, but didn't do anything more.  He attempted to flip his hat from his foot to catch it, but it ended up in the lap of the person next to me.  He then offered to do flips for each dollar he got, but at that point most of the train was not interested and didn't offer him any.  An awkward silence rose within him, as he just stood waiting for the train doors to open to get off at the next stop.  I have seen many performances in my experiences in the subway, but this one I can honestly label as being the worst one.