Spring break is the time for fun somewhere outside of your own world but how all of my friends can afford to fly and go to freaking Cabo is unknown to me. This year for spring break I bought my round trip Greyhound Bus Ticket to Chicago for just about 75 dollars, called up a friend's sister who lives there, stayed for free and only paid for beer and food. I made a spring break for about 200 dollars.
I can add that 12 hours on a Greyhound Bus wasn't my favorite part of the trip considering I was sitting next to my dear friend, Candi.
As I got on the bus in Kansas City there wasn't a single double seat open, so no matter what happened I was going to sit with a stranger. I am totally fine with strangers and in fact if you know me I totally enjoy getting to meet new people but this wasn't going to be the bus ride I hoped for.
As I sit by to the sweet blonde lady who invites me next to her she begins to tell me her life story. Lord help me because this woman doesn't have a short story and after I hear of her divorce, her kids, her boyfriend, their family vacation and anything else you she did the last 5 years she falls asleep on top of me. I am almost in my own tears of exhaustion. Candi, as sweet as she probably was, was twitching and yelling in her sleep and as I'm clammy and sleep deprived I just keep counting down the miles to St. Louis on my iPhone maps app.
At some point on the bus while everyone was asleep I looked around and recognized that, although Candi should stay on her side, I was so unbelievably privileged. I was taking this bus for a spring break trip to Chicago. The kid next to me in the station was taking it hoping someone in his family would take him in, the woman behind me had a newborn baby and a four year old and she was just trying to make it to every stop. Candi made life uncomfortable for me but she was on that bus to go see the people she loves most, her kids.
Most people I encountered were taking the bus so that they could continue to survive essentially. I realize that the fact that I am even writing this article clearly points out that I am so unbelievably sheltered from the world itself but what I pulled from the entire thing is that sometimes in life I get caught up in all the extra whether it is school, work, being social or just going through the motions that I forget I am so incredibly blessed to be a young, college woman who has parents who have always had the means to provide for me and to be taking the Greyhound Bus for a good story.
How privileged am I to be able to be in the position in life that I am?
My challenge to you is to either catch the Greyhound for a mini vacation or just look around you every once and awhile and realize what you have, recognize your privileges and to remember in the words of J. Cole, "there is no such thing as a life that is better than yours."
