Rat Motivational Poster Mock Up

Most of the time—okay, literally all of the time—we are something between mesmerized and horrified by the glimpses we get of the rats with whom we share this beautiful, garbage city. They pole dance on the subway, they pile themselves onto one another to get a view of a trash utopia, sometimes they even run their own semi-reputable salad shops. We bear witness because that is our duty as New Yorkers, not because we particularly like knowing that rats are everywhere at all times. Oh shit, there’s one crawling up your pant leg!

But the video you’ll see below…is different. It is about perseverance. It is about destiny. It is about upending the status quo and changing the narrative. It will inspire you to reach you goals. It will make you root for a subway rat.

Joe R. was waiting for the E train at 50th Street station around 2 p.m. on Wednesday when he witnessed this seemingly Sisyphean tableau: “I was the only person who took notice of the rat, and began filming,” he told Gothamist. “The whole scenario lasted for about a minute. I was certainly rooting for him.”

And who wouldn’t be rooting for him or her—after all, aren’t we all just rats in the subway station of life, trying desperately to smuggle a meager piece of the pie through a tiny hole (the tiny hole is capitalism, I think?).

Let’s hope this little rat has a long and happy life and never runs into Eric Adams.