A cynic may witness this woman’s actions and let fly the familiar utterance that “chivalry is dead,” but others might take stock of this pregnant woman’s hilarious act and suggest that she’s trying to bring it back through the power of positive reinforcement.
Yvonne Lin is on her second pregnancy and, during all her time riding the subway, had not once encountered a man willing to part with his seat for the sake of her comfort—though several women had made the concession. Kinda messed up, right?
Well, rather than become embittered, Yvonne got creative.
During the first pregnancy, she actually carried with her a small thank-you card that she, heartbreakingly, never had to opportunity to give to a man. Undiscouraged, she raised the bounty the second time around, this time carrying with her a small trophy with an inscription.
She said to DNA Info, “I was getting no seats from men. If I finally get a seat from a guy then I have to celebrate this some way and make sure he knows he’s appreciated.”
Thus was born the custom-engraved Hulk statue.
Fortunately, this time around, the statue got to see some action. Eight months into her pregnancy (a photo finish!), a father of two, name unknown, did the decent thing and surrendered his seat.
She commemorated the event with an Instagram post featuring a picture of the lucky winner.
The inscription read:
#1 DECENT DUDE
First Man to Offer Subway Seat
to Pregnant Woman
throughout Two Pregnancies.
This story serves as a strange mix of heartening and disheartening news, albeit cloaked in a good-natured narrative, though it is a shame that Yvonne had to endure 17 combined months of pregnancy and daily commutes before being offered a damn seat on the train.
It merits noting that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has adopted a formal marketing effort known as Courtesy Counts, suggesting and reminding able-bodied men and women alike to part with their seats for the sake of the pregnant women, the elderly, and the disabled. It might not be catching on as quickly as we would like, but at least this award-winner gives us a glimmer of hope.
Ladder leads out of darkness.Photo credit 
Woman's reflection in shadow.Photo credit 
Young woman frazzled.Photo credit 
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.