In transit: The time we don’t count

We measure our London lives in milestones –

the new job, the new flat, the new postcode.

But we rarely measure the hours spent inside the carriage.

Londoners spend an average of two years commuting in their lifetime.

These scattered fragments seem like meaningless blanks,

yet they are the deepest fingerprints the city leaves on us.

When you leave, you may not remember the lights of Regent Street.

But you will remember your first Tube ride to work.

The first time you fell asleep against the glass, too tired to care where the train was going.

You will remember your first winter, waiting for the bus in falling snow,

and the first spring you learned to wait in the rain.

You will remember the dogs glimpsed through windows that quietly made your day.

And one day you will realise: the city has shifted.

From strange to familiar, from familiar to distant.

We leave the city, but we keep its gaze.

The destination no longer matters as we carry the rhythm with us.

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