City Life: The Daily Commute

Your energy is already partially depleted — and you haven’t even started your day yet.

But you move on.
As usual.

That’s the current city landscape.

I’ve always been a systems person. It’s how I make sense of the world. That’s why when I see complexity I automatically have to simplify it. And when I started looking more closely at larger systems — especially those affecting marginalised groups — a pattern became hard to ignore.

These systems aren’t designed to push people out.
They’re designed to compress them.
To push them down.
To stereotype quietly, consistently, and repeatedly.

You’ve heard it all before.
But now you’re living it.
Again and again.

You might’ve heard the phrase déjà vu.
This feels more like déjà poo — the same mess, recycled, dressed up as normality.

The commute.
The interview.
The everyday interactions.

Different settings. Same cycle.

The commute: slow, unreliable transport systems.
The interview: you jump through the hoop of fire.
The everyday interactions: being spoken to as if you don’t know what you’re doing.

At work, the stereotyping follows.
You people have lots of money.

If only.
My commute would look very different.

Even during day-to-day errands, it continues.
You should buy this heavy package deal from us.

You move on.

Over time, something more dangerous happens.

You start conforming to the label.

Not because it’s true — but because resisting it every single day costs too much time. You compress yourself. And again, you move on.

That’s why identity is so important.

Because if you don’t name what’s happening,
the system will happily name you instead.

So I’m curious — genuinely.

How does your daily commute go?

Not just logistically.
But emotionally.

What does your day look like before it starts?

Always,

Zahra

✨ When silence speaks louder than words…
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