My Daily Morning Commute

I started my internship for my MA degree three weeks ago. I work (or should I say intern?) at a magnet school. It's very different from a regular public school and sometimes I find myself still adjusting to the environment. I am majoring in Deaf Education so I am working with deaf children, specifically 2nd graders. This magnet school has three types of students. Talented and Gifted, Mentally Impaired and finally, Hearing Impaired. Everyday, I see lots of students with disabilities. Some are minor while others are pretty severe. There are good days and bad days. On the bad days, I leave school feeling depressed and feeling sad for the students who have severe defects. I won't go into detail here - but imagine seeing a small child that is practically a vegetable who sits in a wheelchair all day long, stares into space and drools on their bibs. Now multiply that by about 20 to 30. Pretty depressing.

Anyway, I have been driving to the school for three weeks now. I leave my apartment at 7:00am and arrive by 7:30. Some days, I don't leave my apartment until 7:05 or 7:10. I take the same route everyday. I go through the same morning routine 5 days a week. It can get pretty boring. For many of us, we have our daily morning ritual - and even if we leave our homes on time, we probably don't see the same cars on the road, right?

On my drive to work, I go through a fancy community. During my short drive in this community, I find myself feeling strange. I get this eerie feeling of being in a movie. Why? Well, you know how in some movies, people in small towns go through their daily routines and always pass the same people on the road or on the sidewalk? That happens to me.

On one specific road, I see the same people almost every single morning like clockwork. First, I see a middle-aged man that looks like he's built to be on a football team. He is always wearing a dark blue jogging suit. He comes out of his gated townhouse community with his middle-sized grey schnauzer and waits at the street corner. When he receives the signal, he crosses the street and starts walking his hyper dog down the road.

I see a woman with long blonde hair in a ponytail wearing a white jogging suit. She runs weird. Whenever I see her, I think of men training in the military. In the usual military obstacle course, you will see two rows of tires lined up. The recruits are seen running as quick as they can through the tires, picking their knees up and balancing back and forth. This particular lady runs like she's going through the tires. Her hair swishes back and forth wildly. I'm not sure if her running style is intentional or if she just runs weird.

I see a couple of senior citizens walking their dogs. Once in a while, I will see the same people stopping to chat with each other on the sidewalk as they pass each other. There are lots of dog walkers at this time of the day. Sometimes, I will see two people with their trainer (I'm assuming) going through a workout routine on a tennis court.

Whenever I go down this road, I am always reminded of movies and television shows that have their characters meet and greet the same people every morning on their way to work. I always think to myself that it isn't realistic. There's far too many people in the world and there's tons of factors to consider. Just how often do you see the exact same people every single day down to the exact minute? If I am a few minutes early or late on my drive through this community, I see an entirely different group of people. Most of them are dog walkers and some of them are business people walking down the sidewalks. If I am a little bit early in my drive, I usually see a lady sitting down in the grass next to a bus stop waiting for her bus to arrive.

I find it fascinating and somewhat comforting to see the same people every morning. My internship at that school ends in four weeks. I'll be starting a new morning routine and a different commute. I wonder what that will bring me.