Every day, I commute
to my internship via the MARTA bus, and while sometimes people give MARTA a bad
reputation, the bus is extremely convenient, and the morning commutes are
exceedingly easy. However, for some
reason, I decided to be adventurous on my third day of work by taking the MARTA
bus home after work rather than being picked up. And that was a mistake.
Let me set the scene. I worked eight hours, ate lunch at noon and left work around 5:15 p.m. It took me 15 minutes to walk to and find the bus stop, and I waited at least 20 minutes for the bus to come. So by the time I got on the bus, it was 5:50, I was hungry and I was ready to go home and relax. But here's the catch: little did I know, I hopped on the wrong bus. Of the two different routes that happen to go to that particular bus stop, I later found out, I boarded the wrong one. I could have sworn the bus said the correct route number, but I guess I was tired and excited to get on any bus.
Now, I'm on the bus, which goes the same direction as the bus I needed to get on for at least a good 10 minutes (of the supposedly 15-minute bus ride). And it turns right instead of left. I'm confused, and I look around. I know the bus driver said something, but my headphones were in and I wasn't paying attention. I see the woman next to me also looking at trusty Google maps on her phone, so she must be confused too, right? I see detour signs, so I think maybe the bus driver had to take some sort of detour because of construction or an accident or anything that could possibly explain this.
And so I sit for a while, slowly realizing that this might not be a detour. I become very aware of the package of fruit snacks and the Rice Krispie Treat in my bag, since it's been more than six hours since lunch and no one is allowed to eat on the bus. Eventually, a slight panic sets in as I wonder if the bus will ever turn around or will somehow continue driving north forever. By now, I've been on this bus for 40 minutes, and I ask the driver if the bus will ever head south.
The driver is confused about where I need to go, almost as much as I'm confused about where I've been going. But she tells me to get off at the MARTA train station that we're almost at and take that south again. So we get there at some point, and I ride down to where I would normally be picked up. Essentially, I turned a 15-minute walk and car ride into a two-hour walk, bus, train and car journey in the northern parts of Atlanta. It was quite a day.
But I learned two things on that exhausting Wednesday:
- Always look on the bright side. Yes, I took a longer trip than I should have, and yeah, I was starving, but I got to see a lot of Atlanta that I never would have otherwise. I also have a great story to tell and I had nothing better to do with my time anyway (no schoolwork!).
- Always check and double-check the bus number before getting on.
