In my sophomore year of college, I began paying the outrageous fee to park my car on campus in order to complete my required observations for my Introduction to Education class. Having a car on campus is probably the most convenient thing I have done for myself. We have a bus system that works great Monday-Friday, but the weekends are when my car really comes in clutch, as I can then park in any big Rutgers parking lot without the fear of the campus police department giving me a ticket for putting my car in the wrong lot.

My extra mode of transportation is often not something I tell people about, including friends, because they often get confused between my personal vehicle and an Uber. One time, I had a friend who did not talk to me often until she heard that I had a car on campus. It was only then that she started talking about getting together to hang out more often, such as going out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings during the week. I do not want to be friends with someone whose only reason or bright side to being my friend is that I have a car within reasonable accessibility. Especially with the rising cost of gas prices in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, I do not use my car as much during the school week in order to save money and hassle when I can just take a bus for free.

On that note, there are also those who expect that I can drive them wherever they need to go with no form of exchange. Before classes started, I got a text from a friend who was asking if I was busy and when I told them I was volunteering and could not leave until later, she replied that she was going to ask me for a ride somewhere.

Let me state this one more time for the people in the back of the room: I AM NOT A TAXI.

I cannot be driving people everywhere for the sake of it because I have bills to pay and food to buy. There are few people I know who I would happily give a ride to because I know if they are asking, then it must be an important reason.

It is fun to go out and explore new places off-campus on the weekends when classwork is the last thing on our minds. I am often up for adventures with long drives and shopping trips with close friends who I know like me for more than just my on-campus accessibility to my little Subaru. I am also happy to go out shopping to the Shoprite or Target in the next town so that my student organization (and myself) can save money to get items we need for events, but I am not an all-accessible taxi service.