“You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It's your life.” (Ethan Embry)

Every morning I leave the house at approximately 6:39 a.m. in order to catch the 6:41 El to the loop. I pop in my headphones and drink my instant breakfast as I am brought downtown to nanny. I love riding the el in the morning; it is relaxing and helps me truly wake up for my strenuous duties of the day. And I don't have talk to anyone or worry about traffic.

There are a variety of interesting characters that grace my presence each day. They all remind me of fictional characters. One man looks like Wormtail from Harry Potter and another like Spock from Star Trek; every so often people from Lost will be on board. I am constantly grazing the crowd for an Edward Cullen. No such luck as of yet, but I have seen someone who resembled Michael Phelps.

At the end of the day, I hop back on the el, and it brings me literally 12 steps away from my door. I have taken to reading on my rides home; it makes the time go by rather quickly and then I am home. I have not once read anything of any literary merit during my el commute. I am currently reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, a book about demons and shadowhunters.

Among my repertoire of books on the el are: Fallen by Lauren Kate, Night World Series and The Vampire Diaries Series both by L.J Smith, and of course Twilight. All of these books have a common denominator; they are about supernatural beings and passionate love. I don't really understand my draw to books written for a 15 year old girl, but I read them nonetheless. And I shouldn't just say I read them; I completely and utterly enjoy them. I am proud to admit it and will defend myself unabashedly.

But anyway, every day is usually exactly the same. Today was a bit different.

I got on the el in the evening as I usually do, with my headphones in -- the song probably either Adam Lambert or J.Lo -- and take my spot in a single seat that faces backward.

But today as I sat down, I couldn't help but notice that the music from my ipod was not the only music I could hear. Sure enough when I took out my earbuds, sitting across from me was a girl belting out the song that was playing on her iPod. She then switched the song to Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten, and proceeded to belt out the whole thing. She sang pretty well and for the most part she had the lyrics down. The thing was, she wasn't simply humming along -- this girl was flat out singing her heart out. Almost as though it was some strange social experiment to see how people would react. Most people just had small hints of uncomfortable smiles on their faces.

Unfortunately she got off a mere stop or two after I got on and I didn't get a chance to hear her sing anything else. But, man oh man. I have a lot of admiration for this girl. She was around my age and looked fairly normal, perhaps a bit like she could be strange to talk to. Regardless -- the courage it takes to sing out loud to music only you can hear is one thing. It is an entirely different thing to sing on the chicago brown line.

I hope one day she is on there again. And on that day -- I will sing along to whatever song she is singing. Because why not!? Songs are meant to be sung. Time, place, and audience should have no impact on that.

I like to read crappy novels about vampires and she likes to sing on the el. We are all entitled to be and do whatever it is that brings us joy. To each their own. What is the world if not full of people who are themselves and do what makes them happy? Individuality is in my opinion totes copacetic.


Live rich each moment. As a great man once said, "Drink deep the day."