Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Hurry! The doors are closing! As I descended the subway staircase at 28th and Broadway just before 8 a.m., I experienced that moment every New Yorker fears: The woman in front of me suddenly ran toward the turnstiles as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, suggesting a train was at the platform. I was about to do The Sprint, sure to leave me with either just-made-it glory or just-missed-it agony.
In this case, my haste led to the dreaded “TOO FAST SWIPE AGAIN†that always makes you feel like a rookie. The mistake was costly; I arrived at the doors just after they closed. Defeat.
This had been a week full of cruel twists on my New York routine. On Monday morning, I was struck by a cab in a crosswalk, and while I was uninjured it has made every street-crossing since a little more tense. On Wednesday, the trusty pizza place on my corner shut down.
And now I just missed the train after a valiant sprint. But then, in a moment of reinvigoration, the conductor decided to open the door again, just for me. I couldn’t see his or her neck sticking out, but I blindly waved to the left hoping this person would see me say: I know you didn’t need to do that. Thank you.
There are a lot of these restore-your-faith moments in New York. So we ask you, City Room readers: What unexpected moments or gestures have lifted you up? Have you witnessed a moment of kindness happening to someone else? Let us live through your good fortune by sharing yours in the comments.
