Identity Crisis on the MTA

    Riding the train from Queens to Manhattan is comparable to a time machine. Except maybe it's a context machine. I think I experienced a minor identity crisis as I shuttled from one stop to the next, the population shifting with each MTA station. Psychologists say that humans have a need to belong; it's why we join clubs, churches, and gangs. For better or for worse, I exhibit that need to "fit in". So when the train kept chugging along it didn't leave time to make a costume change. In Queens I was the overdressed, trendy girl in a sea of blue collar laborers. In Williamsburg I was the conservative girl next to the overdressed, trendy hipsters. And in Manhattan I was the blue collar girl in car full of conservative businessmen.
    Maybe it was a crisis, or maybe a simple lesson in self confidence. Regardless of the context, we are who we are. Our uniqueness as individuals is what makes us all the same.