Unpopular Opinion: I miss my commute on the TTC

Not every day. I don’t miss having to be organised in the mornings. But I do miss the excitement of choosing an outfit where the bottom half matters (not that it really ever matters). 

I don’t miss the guilt I feel from using an hour of my work day to travel anywhere within Scarborough because I take the TTC. But I do miss my bus journeys slowly engraving the map of Scarborough on my internal compass. 

I don’t miss the crowd-causing transit breakdowns that these days would also cause pandemic panic. But I do miss the hour-long wake-up to work and decompression home; the reading, the noise-cancelling earphones that give me music to march to, from station to office, and back again. 

I don't miss that walk on the days, or weeks, when they don't salt or clear the snow - a hazard for me and an isolator for seniors in the community. But I do miss the brief, yet regular moments of hello and waves with local folks as we trade places on the bus. 

I don't miss having to remember to bring lunch or paying for delivery because there is no shop, restaurant, or café within a 20 minute walk of my desk. But I do miss hearing how my colleagues' children are doing in life, and sharing a good part of my seemingly endless thought streams with their patient ears. 

I miss seeing random acts of kindness and generosity, like the person who tried to offer up their seats on the subway in a pandemic, with all it's distance and masks that made it seemingly impossible unless you persist like she did. Gender assumptions acknowledged. 

I miss the connectedness to the world you gain from just being around strangers.

I miss my commute on the TTC.