The sign reads: “TRAIN 0430: Departure – 8:00 am / Boarding Dock – 90 / Destination – Unkown” and as you begin to look away from the illuminated sign hanging on the bright white marble wall, a voice emerges from the intercom echoing through the empty terminal and invading your hearing.

The smooth female voice says: “All passengers from the train 0430, please make your way toward the boarding dock 90, we’ll begin boarding upon the train’s arrival. Don’t forget your train ticket, it will help you begin a memorable trip.”

On your way to the boarding dock you stumble into different people, some of which seem to be in a hurry to get to their destination not minding anyone else in their path, and not paying attention to their surroundings. You think to yourself; “They might’ve missed the smile on that kid next to the vending machine by the big wooden door, or even the pretty blond girl handing out travel tip booklets under that huge mural of the city or that guy playing the saxophone by the stairs with the colorful neons along the railing. What a shame.”  Others appear to walk with a slower pace still finding their way, searching for the right door to enter. But to go where exactly?

As you stand there in the middle of the main hall of the terminal, you notice the scenery you’re in, an abstract painting composed of people, lives, dreams and stories. They all look the same interacting with one another, but everyone is here for a different reason, for a different train on schedule for another departure time, everyone has a different story, past and future. You take a moment, standing with your suitcase in one hand and your train ticket grasped tightly in the other and you start imagining what their stories could be. Why are these people in this terminal? Where are they going once they board their train? You have your story, your reason to board, and that makes you wonder if there would be anyone else with the same reason to embark on this journey.

Once you cross the door leading to the boarding dock, you first notice the enormous locomotive steaming before you. The sound of the warming engine overtakes your hearing and becomes nearly hypnotizing as you begin to walk toward the iron horse. After a couple of steps, you begin to feel a slight vibration coming from the ground and slowly invading your body, making your footsteps silent as each foot hits the wet ground one after the other. All of a sudden, a man appears from the convoy’s metallic door, and with a deep and extremely loud voice he yells; “ALL ABOARD!”.

You stop for a second to gather your thoughts, and focus on moving your left foot forward to get closer. When the man notices you he quickly smiles, salutes you by lifting his hat and with a surprisingly soft voice he speaks; “Ticket please.” You proceed to hand him the train ticket you’ve been holding in your left hand since you’ve entered the terminal. The tall man proceeds to stamp your ticket, hands it back to you and says; “Welcome aboard, make yourself comfortable” and slowly closes the door. With the door shut behind you, you notice the wagon is empty and has only one seat by the big window on the left… 

Trust me life is great, we all reach a point in our lives where we embark our own train ride, whether it is with a defined destination or not. Even the boarding process may not seem as a voluntary decision at times. It’s the train ride that defines the rest of our lives, its path is determined by our dreams and decisions to take action upon them or not. Everyone enters a different wagon that gives us access to specific stations according to our itinerary and final destination. This is why, when we first enter the train we appear to be alone, that is until we begin to look out the windows, get off at various stations and interact with other passengers. Slowly our wagon begins to look more and more crowded as we move forward in our journey. After all, we’re all in the same train, we just need to explore, try new things, talk to different people, and most importantly take the slow route.