Creative Nonfiction
2 min
I daydream a lot
Tracy
I daydream a lot. If I'm catching SEPTA and I'm just going wherever. Sometimes, I'll sit back and look at the neighborhoods I'm going through, and I'm like, Wow, I wish I had some money so I can make a difference. I would like to rebuild these communities and get rid of all these abandoned buildings.
And, you know, especially when you see a lot of homeless people, that really touched me because you got the rent so high. Some of the jobs may not be paying as much. And then you got to look at somebody, and I'll be like, that could be me one day because you never know the outcome of life.
When you're traveling, you're going through a lot of different neighborhoods. Every neighborhood is going to be different. You see them rebuilding some, but they're not rebuilding some; a few are worse than others. And then you see crimes in some of the neighborhoods. And, you know, I sit back and think, what could I do to make a difference?
I've been employed at SEPTA for 24 years. I started out as a bus operator, then transferred to the light rail system, and then went onto the Broad Street line. I drove trains for a little bit, and then I came back over here to work as a trolley operator, and I've been here ever since,
I love the job. I love it because I get to meet people from all walks of life, people from all over the world.
I like to show love to everybody. I like to do hearts, and I blow kisses out to everybody. And I do hugs and stuff out the window. Everybody that gets on, I want them to feel welcome when they get on the trolley.
Some people don't have that love at home. They probably lost their mom, their father, brothers and sisters. You know, they might be alone. We have a lot of people who are depressed, stressed, and suffering from mental illness.
So when they get on here, I want them to feel as though somebody does care, somebody does love them. So I tell my passengers, "I love you". They might look at me like I'm crazy, but I'll tell them, "I love you." You know, I just give them that type of respect. It doesn't matter what type of life - I don't care if you are homeless; whatever the situation, you treat everybody respectfully. And that's what I do.
So that is what makes me love my job, just by seeing somebody smile. I don't know what kind of day they could have had before they got on here. And I did have one person that talked to me before and said I stopped them from wanting to commit suicide.
So stuff like that, like, really touch me. And at these times, when I get to the end of the line, I might go to the bathroom and cry because somebody said something to me.
I had people write me little notes, and before they got off, they'd slide me a note, and then I'd read it at the end of the line, and they say, "Thank God for you. I didn't have this, nobody tells me that they love me," or whatever, they believe on that note. It touches me, so I know I'm reaching out to some people.
I want them to feel as though they're coming into a home that is welcoming them, and then they feel comfortable, and I give them a safe ride to wherever they want to go.
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