Our newspaper...

Is anyone here as disturbed by the content of STOMP as I am? It probably started off with good intentions, but seems to have morphed into a platform for insult trading and petty peeves.


If I just happened to fall asleep coincidentally when a pregnant woman/senior citizen boards the train, will I kanna stomped by someone outraged at a young adult "pretending" to sleep?

People should offer their seats to the pregnant, the injured and the elderly, but if they don't, who are we to judge his/her morals in not doing so? What if that person was genuinely tired or had some hidden issues e.g. back pain and hence probably in greater need of the seat? Technically we all paid the same price for public transportation, and seats are not reserved.

It sucks to be young and apparently able bodied on a train, seriously. I clearly remember the one time when I gratefully sank into the seat that was just vacated in front of me at the end of a long day, and nearly started crying because at the very next stop an old lady in her 70s boarded the train and nobody in the vicinity (all older than me and looking away) got up after 20 seconds because then I felt like I should give my seat to her. I remember this incident probably because of the intense emotion (yea fairly immature I know) and because I was then filled with guilt over not wanting to give the seat to someone who "deserves it more" but then again I was tired! And then angry that just because I was the youngest in the rows of seated people I was obliged to sacrifice my seat. And then thinking that I paid the same money as the rest of these people, why am I required to stand when I'm more tired than them who've been seating down since I boarded the train! And then the "oh no why am I being so inconsiderate where's your sense of service to others" and the guilt and the "I'm tired..." and it goes on and on and blahblahblah.

Oh man, its just a seat. Why was I beating myself up over it?

And then incident number 2, when I was sitting down, listening to music and reading my notes when I finally looked up at Redhill station (I boarded at Lakeside, you do the counting yourself) and saw to my horror this old lady, also probably in her 70s, standing right in front of me. When did she board the train?! She could have been standing there since Clementi for all I know. ZOMG! Did anyone take a picture of the student "pretending to ignore" the old lady so as to continue sitting down? I think someone offered her his seat immediately after that ran through my mind. So after that I asked ym if she had seen my face in STOMP, under the inconsiderate commuters section, and whether anyone was hurling abuse at the evil, blind, parents-and-school-never-teach-properly me and she said nope, not that she had noticed. Phew! =P

Gives new meaning to Big Brother is Watching You.