Bussing
By Autumn Kushner
On my lazier days, when my butt seems irreversibly magnetized towards the ground to the point where the task of riding my bike seems like an insurmountable task, I trudge up the three steps towards the 50 some odd strangers headed to the same location as me. On these days, I am taken aback by the vast array of interesting students inhabiting the school. For some reason the closeness of everyone seems to propagate how different everyone is. There are the women who dress up, the ones that wear copious amounts of perfume, the ones that purposefully dress down, jocks, punks, the questionably older students, the questionably young students, and the odd balls like me who sit glued to the window, headphones on loud enough to deafen a small elephant.
I can never sleep on the bus. I am constantly people watching. To the outside it must look pretty creepy, but it is really cool to watch everyone on the bus and how they interact with one another. You can tell almost everything about a person simply by the way they handle themselves on the bus, around strangers.
Who are you on the bus? Are you the person constantly glued to your phone, texting, calling, trying at length to pursue a life outside the bus? Are you the person on a high streak for the day, wearing the cutest thing you own and looking around casually but constantly for someone to notice? Do you always come in a pair on the bus, talking loudly and laughing on opposite sides of the bus? The one crying in the corner?
I think it is really important to stop and look around at the people you surround yourself with. Friends are only a sliver of the people in your life. Strangers, the people in the periphery of your life, make up the majority and when you have generally decent people around constantly, I think it impacts life in more ways than we realize. For instance, I think it is especially important to recognize things like how few creepy people inhabit the busses in College Station. I think that we are extremely lucky to not ride a public transportation system that not only is free, but is safe as well. It gives us security and confidence to be able to do other things that people in major cities can’t, such as riding the bus alone at night and walking around by yourself at any hour of the day. And the bus drivers do an amazing job. One of my first experiences on the bus up here had me floored at how nice everyone was to the bus driver. So many people thank the bus driver, which would otherwise be a terrible job I’m sure. The other main thing I noticed at first when I started riding the bus up here was how chivalrous some of the guys are. Not everyone does it, but I have seen on more than one occasion a guy gets up for a girl because there are no more seats left. Most people are amiable and I have met more than one friend on the bus that I have had for quite a while. Where else are you going to find a situation in today’s busy world where someone gives up their own comfort for someone else? I have also seen more than once, one person start talking to another because they look like they have had a bad day.
Point being, riding the bus in College Station is a really good privilege that very few get to have so next time you are on the bus, take a look around and thank whatever it is you like to thank that you have the opportunity to meet so many diverse and interesting people without any threat.