The Subway on Memory Lane

There's a Subway sandwich store in downtown Tulsa where I go for lunch sometimes. It's usually full of busy professionals carefully weighing their fresh lowest-calorie meal option for the day. Yesterday there happened to be a bunch of schoolchildren in the store. I think they were in downtown on a school trip or something. Their presence first startled then saddened me. There they were in their little groups, groups of pre-teens munching over their sandwiches and chips, some rebelliously accessorising their uniforms with a silver bag or black nailpolish, but all of them fresh-faced and completely unaware of the grief awaiting them in life. Yes, they will all go through their share of sorrow in their lives, and they don't know it yet. I saw myself in all of their faces, paused for a second, and then moved along in my line to order a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich, not toasted with American cheese and regulation veggies.