When I first started my job as a legal assistant I had to start taking the T work. Parking in Boston is just way too expensive so public transit was my only option. I was actually excited about taking the T to work. This suburban girl was finally headed to the big city. Little did twenty-two year old Ginny know, the novelty of taking the T wears off pretty damn fast.
I took the train for a few weeks without much incident. At the time myspace was still popular and as a relatively attractive female I would often get messages from guys trying to talk to me. I rarely responded but I always read their messages and looked at their profiles because of course I'm curious. I received one message that seemed somewhat normal as did his profile picture. When I clicked on the rest of his photos though it was obvious that he was into some strange stuff. He had photos in leather and bondage gear and one photo where he was tied to a bed. They looked like webcam photos. A bit much for a myspace profile if you ask me but to each his own. I ignored the message and completely forgot about it.
One morning I'm standing on the platform waiting for the train to arrive when a young man walks up to me and says hello. I'm not rude so I say hello back.
"I think I know you"
"Sorry, I don't recognize you."
He's still looking at me with a creepy smile on his face.
"You live in Waltham right?"
Ok, well we're not too far from Waltham so maybe he'd seen me around.
"Yea, I do."
"I messaged you on myspace and you didn't respond."
Then it clicked. I did recognize him and I remembered his weird myspace photos. Ok time to end this quick.
"Oh, sorry I don't usually respond to messages. It's nothing personal."
The train pulls into the station at this point so I board the train and take a seat thinking the conversation is done. Creepy guy takes the seat right next me! I should have expected that and not sat somewhere with an empty seat next to me but I didn't think he would be that pushy.
For the rest of the train ride he continues talking to me. He clearly had read my myspace page and brought up things I had mentioned on my page. I tried to keep my answers short and look out the window but he still wasn't getting the hint or just didn't care.
When the train pulled up to my stop I practically ran off the train. I told some of my coworkers about the encounter and then didn't give it much thought. When I got home and checked my myspace I had a message from him. He asked me if I wanted to meet up for ice cream. He'd know I read the message so I decided to respond with a no thank you and I told him I was dating someone.
The next morning at the train stop he found me once again and starting chatting with me. This time there were no seats available but he stood next me and continued to talk to me while I barely said a word. Once again when I got home there was another message from him. This time I didn't read it. The next morning the train pulled up as he was walking up to the platform. He called out my name and started running to catch the train but luckily he didn't make it before the doors closed. I was saved!
Just kidding the MBTA sucks and ruins lives.
Of course the train I'm on breaks down and I have to get off that train and wait for the next one, and of course I just happen to get on the car that he's on. He sees me and comes right over to me.
"Why didn't wait for me?"
I can tell he's annoyed by his tone of voice.
"I didn't know you were there. I just got on the train."
"I yelled out to you, you didn't hear me?"
"Nope."
At this point I'd had enough and spent the rest of that awkward trip staring straight ahead and completely ignoring him. That night I had another message from him on myspace - which I ignored and immediately blocked him. What my train stalker didn't need to know was that I was moving that Monday to Somerville and would be taking a completely different train. I thankfully never saw him again.
If this happened to me now, at the much wiser age of thirty-one, I would have shut this down asap. I tend to be too nice sometimes and although I've gotten better at releasing the inner bitch or even my inner Kraken if necessary, I'm still a work in progress. I will say that I certainly learned from this experience and as far as stalkers go, it could have been much much worse.
I'd like to take a moment to remember the old myspace. You ushered in the era of oversharing and social media obsession. People may have moved on but crazy myspace stories live on in all of us.
