I HAD ONE JOB Oluwatobi
Akangbe
During 2020, I decided to do in-person school because I was tired of staying home. Since I don’t know how to get there, my mom was gonna take me. She asked, “How many times should I take you to school until you can figure it out on your own?” “Three,” I said. I was feeling confident that it shouldn’t take me that long to get the route. To get there, I take the 3 train, and go to New Lots which is on the left side. Then I would get off on New Lots and take the 84 bus which would drop me off to school. As I’m walking to the train, I’m thinking about the steps and how to get there. Every step I take, I see myself getting closer to the train. Once I started to get lost, I lost hope because I realized I didn’t know where else to go. I started to get confused. Do I turn here? Do I cross the street now? I tried replaying the memories of my mother walking me to school to try to remember where to go next. I looked at my surroundings without trying to seem lost. I was walking to the 3 train, replaying memories of my mother’s demonstration, and then I got to the station. I went up the long, skinny staircase and went towards the Manhattan side of the tracks. There were a lot of people. A minute or two before the train came, I had a brief thought: What if I’m on the wrong side? I figured I should be fine. The 3 train came and I got on. I started seeing unfamiliar stops. Rockaway. Saratoga. Sutter Av-Rutland Road. That’s when I got off, knowing I went too far in the wrong direction. “Oh my god. Mommy, I’m lost,” I cried on the phone, “I went on the wrong side of the tracks!” “Tobi, it’s okay, it’s okay. Stop crying. You don’t want to seem vulnerable. Just get on the other side and take the train from
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