Natalie Arroyo - A Tiny Victory

 

Hello. First time doing this up here, so, yay. [audience chuckle] Okay. So, I'm short. I know I'm short. I've accepted the fact that I'm short, it's okay. I'm never going to reach that top shelf at the store without assistance, and that's okay. It wouldn't be so bad, except I'm also young looking. I look like I'm about 15 years old. I'm not, but I do. I've been given children's menus at restaurants, carded at movie theaters, CVS, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [audience laughter] And one time, I asked this lady for directions and she said, [in a feeble voice] “Yes.” [audience laughter] Yeah. So, something I just have to live with. 

 

A couple of months ago, I'm transferring trains. It's late, it's a Friday, I'm exhausted, I want to go home. Normally, I stick my phone in the inside pocket of my bag, but I'm in a rush, so I stick it in the outside pocket and I run to catch the train. So, the train pulls in, I'm waiting. It's slow, so we're waiting. I start to be very aware that this guy is standing really close to me, just a little too close, but I try not to think anything of it. And then, I feel my bag get lighter, because I overstuff my bag so it makes lot of sense. I feel my bag get lighter. And I look down, and I see my phone's missing and my whole pocket's empty. I look over, and this guy at 05:15, this guy is an adult, somebody's dad. 

 

He's really tall [chuckles, and he's staring straight ahead. He's got a newspaper tucked under his arm and completely ignoring me. I know instinctively that he just stole my phone and had it tucked it into his newspaper, because I watch Burn Notice, I know how things work. [audience laughter] So, I look at him, and again he's ignoring me and I'm thinking, he knows he's going to get away with this. He's totally going to get away with this, because he sees the same thing everybody else sees. He sees a 15-year-old girl, no threat. What am I going to do? Even if I notice that my phone is gone, how am I going to stop this guy? 

 

I just got so angry that I said, "Hey, you just took my phone." He turned at me and looked, "What?" Both of us were surprised. [audience laughter] And I said, "Yeah, you just took my phone. That's my phone. Give me back my phone." I'm pointing at the newspaper. And he starts to back away, so I grab the newspaper, and we start to-- [chuckles] We start to struggle, me and this big tall man. We start to struggle and people are coming on and off the train, because it's New York, so no one cares. [audience laughter] 

 

So, we're wrestling. And it’s me screaming, "That's my phone, give me back my phone.” And he's screaming, "It's just a newspaper." But he doesn't know that I'm a preschool teacher and I get a lot of experience taking things out of people's hands. [audience laughter] So, I win. I get the newspaper, and he shouts, "It's just a newspaper," and walks off down the platform. Then I open the newspaper and there's my phone. [audience cheers and applause] 

 

Can you imagine if I was wrong, it would be a totally different story. [audience laughter] So, I throw out the newspaper, because it can't litter. I looked down the platform at this guy. And by now, the train is empty and people are on the train, doors are still open, it's waiting to depart. I see him, he's down the platform and he's looking at me, wondering what I'm going to do. Every other day, I would just bow my head and step into the train, because I don't like confrontation and I don't like making waves. I would just be embarrassed that I had to deal with this interaction, that I had to fight this guy. And that's because I'm a quiet person, I'm tiny, and I'm nice. But that day was not this day, so I chased him. [audience laughter]

 

And as he sees me running at him down the platform, [audience laughter] he panics and jumps onto the train. I catch up to him, the door is closed. I pull out my phone, and with my camera to take a picture and we're face to face on the other side of the glass. I go to take a picture and it freezes, because my phone is crap. [audience laughter] But it's my crappy phone, and I choose to fight for it. 

 

So, the train pulls away. He doesn't know that, as far as he's concerned, he got his ass kicked by a 15-year-old girl. [audience laughter] I've told this story to a lot of people since then, and they all said the same thing, which is, "That was amazing. Don't ever do that again." [audience laughter] And not that I would ever want to wrestle a complete stranger on a subway platform again. I now know that if I need to stand up for myself, I can. Thank you.