It's safe to say we take our bus rides for granted. We usually ride them only if we need to get somewhere relatively far away or are in a hurry. But there's so much more to appreciate in a bus ride than a lot of people think. If done correctly, a bus ride can be a rare opportunity to sit back, relax, and reflect.

At the University of Illinois, most students ride the CUMTD (Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District) buses as a chore. They hop on the 22 Illini to get to their next class or their dorm, the 12 Teal to get to Illinois Terminal or downtown Champaign, the 13 Silver to get to downtown Urbana, etc. The same applies to almost all public transit riders all over the world. Sure, the bus helps us save time and energy, but what do we do on the bus during the ride?

The vast majority of us immediately take out our smartphones and start browsing social media or listening to music, waiting for the ride to be over. If you fall into this category, I ask you to think of your bus ride in a different way. This is not a wait at a doctor's office, or even the wait you endured before getting on the bus. In our hectic lives, a bus ride is a rare and valuable opportunity to give our phones a hard-earned break, enjoy the ride, and as counter-intuitive as it sounds, enjoy some personal space.

As a longtime public transit enthusiast, I often ride public transit for hours on end just for the fun of it. I come from NYC, and over there I have been to all five boroughs in a single day-all on public transit. After I started studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I started exploring the CUMTD bus system, and have ridden every CUMTD route (though not every segment of every route) and bus model. And of course, whenever I ride transit, I try my best to enjoy the ride, even if the bus is "boring" or if I have ridden the same segment a hundred times.

I understand, however, that most people are not nearly as into public transit as I am, and that's okay. We all have our hobbies and interests, and our own ways to relax and chill out. Regardless of what they are, it is very worthwhile to try to enjoy our bus rides instead of taking them for granted.

The next time you board a bus, look outside the window instead of down at your screen. You can browse social media anywhere, but you can't enjoy the scenery anywhere. You will notice things you never noticed, from small businesses to people from all walks of life. You may roll through a bustling city street or a tranquil suburban or rural road, but there's hidden beauty in every route. Enjoy the feeling of going places, which cannot be felt at home, in class, or almost anywhere else..

Similarly, listen to the sound of the engine and transmission instead of a playlist. You can listen to your favorite song anywhere, but you can't listen to the natural sounds of the ride anywhere. You will notice that different buses make different sounds, from the deep roar of old articulated buses to the whir of the newest hybrids. If you're lucky, you may even catch the unique ringing sound of an early 2000s CNG powered bus. The sounds the buses make almost give them a unique personality and soul. Soon you will no longer think of buses as mechanical conveyances. You will start thinking of them as human beings, just like the people who ride and drive them.

This blend of sights and sounds will soon lead you to think-not about school or work or other sources of stress, but about more simple and perhaps more important matters. You will start appreciating the hard work that hundreds of people put in to make your ride safe, pleasant and enjoyable. You will start reflecting-perhaps about personal matters, perhaps about the world around you. You will soon begin to appreciate the journey and almost forget about the destination. Let the bus and the driver do the hard work of conveying you to your destination and just sit back and enjoy these few minutes of relaxation.

Before you know it, you will be at your destination. The few valuable minutes of stress relief will be over, and you will soon want to ride again and again. There are very few moments in our daily lives as relaxing, meditative, and thought-provoking as a bus ride. The prospect that something so mundane can also be so meaningful has never failed to perplex and amaze me. Next time you find yourself on a bus, enjoy the ride. Life is a journey, not a destination.