Wheels on the bus

I was thrown into the Grown-Up world of Public Transportation after my parents saw my close friend doing it and told me to do it too. I had been preparing for months but i still wasnt ready when she dropped me off at the bus stand with no warning except, "take this bus and get down at your apartment."

And it was great. I was lucky enough to catch an air-conditioned bus with many empty seats. I felt very lucky especially when the sun shone on my face which led to some pretty good pictures.

I got to watch and observe different types of people who got on and off. How they sat and where they sat, how they interacted with each other and the bus conductor. I felt so in touch with other strangers.

I know that I was lucky my first experience with public transport went really smoothly. I have seen over-crowded buses with people hanging off the door and feared for when that would be me.

Fortunately it never was (yet). My experiences since then have only been good, and for that I am so grateful. After that first time, I educated myself on the route numbers so I could travel more often on my own.

One afternoon, I had been waiting for more than an hour but there was no sign of any bus. The traffic was exceptionally bad that day. So I gave up and booked am auto rickshaw. But I told myself that I would definitely take a bus on the way back.

And I did. I had to change buses twice and cross a busy intersection but I did it and I reached home safe. I felt very accomplished and adult. The biggest realisation I had was that people do this everyday. They rely on public transport to get them home after their work day.

I'm extremely grateful to grow up without having to worry about transportation. School buses used to take me from my apartment right to my school buidling, and we always had our car for other things. I'm glad that my parents let me experience this. I no longer rely on having to ask my father to drop me somewhere or pay an exorbitant amount for an auto when I can just catch a bus and go places at a small price.

I feel like this has only made me more adaptive. Rather than walk directly out of my house into an auto, I walk 20 minutes to the bus stop, get on it, switch routes and walk some more. I'm grateful for this system and how it offers so many of us a way to get about.