Every thing I needed to know I learned from the MTA - part 1

In the long journey that is life, people will come in and out of your life. Some, however, will be with you through your entire ride. 

My typical ride is about 90 minutes and I go through a number of different cast of characters by the time I get to where I'm going. It first changes at downtown Brooklyn, then again at Wall Street, once more at midtown and lastly, uptown. Very rarely, is there someone on the train who ride is as long as mine but occasionally I notice a fellow weary straphanger.

Life is the same way: by the time we are finished with our lives, we would have had a few different groups of people around us. There are the people from the neighborhood that we grew up with who then get replaced or augmented by our friends from HS/college. Soon we will have work companions, and if we're lucky, a family of our own, sometimes more than one! Through it all, there are a few people that stay with us: a trusted friend, a life long love, a close sibling.

Just like on the train, we need to look around and enjoy the stories from these different groups as they unfolding before us. More importantly, we need to recognize when there are people who have been there for the whole ride and, even though they may not speak to you, there is at least one person who saw it all and went through everything you did.