here are just too many fleeting moments to count.

Like the other 915,112 daily passengers on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA for short — the T, for even shorter), I rely on its smooth tracks and close-to-but-not-quite punctual arrival times to traverse Greater Boston. At any given moment, you’re waiting on a platform or bumping shoulders with other frequent riders without so much as a glance in the same direction.

This time, I rode the T to take a glance.

Orange Line in the Sky

I am at the spot on Harvard square waiting for a Red Line train toward Ashmont when I meet James Rippy.

He is wearing a gray flat cap, rimless glasses, and a matching gray jersey jacket. He holds an old umbrella with black words carved into the side of its wooden handle — though I can’t make out the letters. He is on his way to his friend’s house to watch the New England Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks. He tells me he will 61 in two weeks.

FM: “How long have you been riding the MBTA?”

JR: “Oh my goodness! All my life.”

Rippy is a Bostonian through and through, born and raised in Jamaica Plain. Now he lives in Cambridge and works as a chef at Harvard. He tells me about how, way back when, the Orange Line used to be in the sky.

JR: “I’m old, okay? So I’ve been with the Orange Line when it used to be above ground. It used to be in the air, and it used to be like 30 or 40 feet up in the air. It used to scare the shabeezus” out of me when it turned around the corner to go into Dudley Station, which is now Nubian Square. It would turn, the train would be like, *imitates screech.* If it was gonna fall off the track, it was gonna fall into the street. It was so scary, but it never happened. You gotta look it up. It’s the nostalgia of the Orange Line in the ’70s.”

As he reminisces, our conversation turns back to Harvard. Rippy has worked all over campus, from cooking in Annenberg to catering upscale faculty dinners to, now, working at the Science and Engineering Complex cafe. As the train approaches, he leaves me with one parting message.

JR: “These younger generations, they walk with their heads down in the phone, they look at the phone, and they don’t speak. They don’t socialize. We need to start socializing. Go back to old school. Say hello.”

Any Recommendations?

Next, I met Carli Bowen. She is taking the Red Line inbound toward Alewife. She is wearing a patterned magenta and blue poncho with black floral prints near the shoulders. She is applying for an administrative job at Harvard and is heading home after seeing the building where she would work.

CB: “I’m originally from Atlanta. I moved up here for work about a year ago, and now I live in the Cambridge area.”

FM: “Any favorite places in Cambridge so far?”

CB: “There is a Brazilian fusion cafe near MIT called bōm dough, and they make all Brazilian fusion little breads and pastries, and they have a raspberry mocha latte that is to die for. And they do — in Colombian culture, it’s called pan de yuca. The Brazilians have a different name for it, but it’s like a cheese and corn masa-based bread, and they do all of their biscuits, and it’s just amazing. I think it’s in Inman Square. Delicious.”

Bowen tells me her family lives in Bogotá, though she is more of a fan of Colombia’s coasts, including Cartagena. While we don’t have time to get into many other details before she leaves the train, she tells me one of her favorite memories is time spent in the Amazon rainforest as a child.

CB: “Unreal.”

Meet the Ryans

Then there was Ryan R. and Ryan P.

They are both tall with slender builds and have been friends for about a decade.

They are also men of few words.

Like, very few.

FM: “Where’d you guys meet?”

RR: “Colorado.”

FM: “Did you guys go to school in Colorado?”

RR: “No, just worked there, hung out.”

FM: “What’d you guys work as?”

RR: “Biotech.”

FM: “Do you have anything you want to add to this meeting story?”

RP: “Nope, it’s going well so far.”

FM: “Do you guys also still work in biotech here?”

RR: “We do.”

FM: “Where?”

RR: “Do I have to say?”

This line of conversation continues in this fashion for quite some time. I learned they both like beer. One is mildly religious. One slept a lot in college. So on, so forth.

FM: “Any closing remarks?”

RR: “No.”

RP: “Not here. Nope.”

Finding Paradise

Meet William Paradise — or, as he introduces himself, Officer Paradise. He was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City. He’s tall-ish, with a tattoo sleeve full of Black historical figures. Martin Luther King, Jr. stares at me for the duration of this interview.

Sept. 10 marks his first anniversary of working as a police officer, he tells me.

FM: “What has been your favorite case so far?”

WP: “I’m gonna just say actually saving someone’s life at Alewife. His clothes got stuck on the escalator, and he kind of almost choked out, and I got to you know get there on time and save his life. So you know that’s been my favorite part about the job so far, just helping people. Cases come with the job, but just helping people and connecting with the community—that’s my favorite part about the job so far.”

FM: “Were you always going to go into the police force?”

WP: “Honestly, no. I never thought about becoming a police officer. I worked for five years at juvenile detention centers, and that was just my thing. Just connecting with the youth, because I come from the same areas as a lot of the youth, you know. I came from poverty, I came from low-income areas in the Bronx, so it was easy for me to connect with the youth, and inspire them. So this was just another step for me.”

FM: “Why’d you leave juvenile detention?”

WP: “I just took the test. I took this test and I took the fire test, and I got the call and I was like, you know what? Let me just make a jump because I could do the same thing. I still see the youth. I still connect with them.”

Our conversation is cut short by someone more in need than me and my article.

He gives me a high five before he leaves.

Missionary Pet Shop

It is raining, and I have just missed my stop when I hear: “Would you like to join our church?”

Two tall guys who look about my age (are all these people tall or am I just short?) stand behind me, eagerly holding copies of the Book of Mormon and waiting for my response. I say no, but drag them in for an interview. Their names are Simeon Terek and Brett Parry. They are headed back to their apartment after a church service in Kendall Square.

FM: “What church do you guys go to?”

ST: “It’s The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

FM: “Do you have any pets?”

ST: “Right now we don’t have any in our home. But I live in Arizona. We have four dogs, three cockatiels. I think 11 chickens. Used to have a tortoise and used to have a couple of bunnies and used to have some fish.”

FM: “That’s a lot of animals.”

ST: “It is.”

FM: “Is there a story behind all the animals?”

ST: “They’re cute when they’re babies, and so you buy them, and then you deal with them when they’re older.”

FM: “Out of all your animals, what’s your favorite?”

ST: “I love the birds. I’ll just have them on my shoulder doing anything, and they just hang out with you.”

FM: “Cool. What about you? Same story?”

BP: “I’m also from Arizona, pretty far from home. But I just got one dog, Steve Rambo.”

#Blessed

On my way out, I talk to one more person. She is 24 and works at several MBTA stations.

FM: “Do you have any fears?”

BM: “Dying. That’s about it.”

FM: “Do you have any regrets so far in life?”

BM: “The person that I was with was a regret.”

FM: “Can you perchance tell me about it?”

BM: “Well, they purposely did something, but what they did, it was a blessing.”

FM: “A blessing in disguise, or just turned out to be fully a blessing?”

BM: “Oh, fully a blessing.”

FM: “We love that. Is there anything that you’re struggling with currently?”

BM: “No, I mean life is always a struggle. Anything can be a struggle. We’re all struggling with things, and because it’s just life.”

FM: “Any stories come to mind?”

BM: “I would say giving birth.”

FM: “You’re a mother!”

BM: “Yeah, my daughter. She’s five.”

Our conversation turns into life advice until we reach the end.

Of the interview. Not of life.

BM: “The advice that I would give is: it might be hard now, but it will be easy later on. And every work that you put in, it’s gonna be worth it because once you’re done and getting the career that you want to get in and the job that you want to get in, it’s gonna be all worth it because the more you get older, when you’re like in your 30s or 40s, you’re gonna be something.”

—Associate Magazine Editor Valerie I. Ogboi can be reached at [email protected].