Let me set the scene for you: Saturday night on the E train, going from Queens (rock on!) to Manhattan for a house party. Ok, so I’m not that lame but I’m also not done yet. The train car was pretty empty when I got on (come to find out that’s because it smelled like urine) and I quickly moved to the other, less smelly, end where a group of 7 teenagers was hanging out. I bet they were juniors, maybe seniors, in high school. The woman across from them had a pinched look on her face – a cross between terror and annoyance, but the only place I could sit away from the smell was next to one of the girls. So, earbuds in, I plopped myself down and started playing wurdle. (See, I am lame.)

For the next 15 minutes, I watched this group of friends, totally mesmerized. They weren’t doing anything special. After just one stop, the guys all stood up and bounced around the car – they literally couldn’t sit still – and the girls started laughing over some pictures on an iPhone. Every few minutes, one or all of the 4 guys would come over, hang on the bar and kind of droop themselves above the girls. They would say something stupid, the girls would laugh, one of their buddies would give them a friendly punch, and then one of the girls would hold up her phone with another video or picture or song. Repeat for 7 more stops.

Ok, here’s the lame part. I was totally entranced by the whole thing. I’ve been there. Not literally, I mean. I didn’t spend my high school years in New York riding the E train to Times Square. But there in the sense that I had those nights when everyone was in a good mood, when it wasn’t too cold for my favorite sweater and my best friend had a good hair day, and we felt like the whole world was coming together to make the night perfect for us. Cheesy, yes. But true. And watching those teenagers I went back to those moments. It just made me realize -  you have to enjoy those nights. They’re special and rare. I’ve let myself get stuck up on small things that don’t matter and have sometimes forgetten to relish those tiny moments when everything just flows and all of my friends laugh at the same joke and everyone’s all in the mood for chicken mcnuggets not pizza, and time seems to stop, at least for a second. They’re nice in memories but not as wonderful if you don’t actually live the moment. So do it. Enjoy them.