To The People Who Are Still Sitting Next To Me On The Bus,
I cannot actually fathom right now that there is still more for me to be shrewd about in regards to riding a public transportation bus. I simply thought that people who didn't follow the unspoken bus riding rules were some of the worst people on the bus, but boy was I wrong. So let me start by saying this, if you haven't read my first article about riding the bus, then click this link and catch up: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/to-the-people-who... . Once you've read this articles predecessor, you'll have learned that there are these quote on quote "common courtesy bus rules" that essentially everyone must follow so that everyone can ride the bus in peace. However, it seems that there are people in this world who believe that they rule the bus, which is not true. Honestly the closest person to ruling the bus is the bus driver because I have placed my life in those people's hands for the next 10-15 minutes.
Anyways, let me just first address one simple fact about riding the bus: ultimately everyone can choose do to whatever they want on the bus because everyone is entitled to freewill. That being said, I was riding the bus the other day and I was one of the first people on. Typically when you get on the bus you try to sit with one seat in-between you and the next person, so you don't sit right next to anyone before it is necessary (Rule #5). So I'm sitting on the bus, minding my own business, and a few more people get on the bus. I'm still fine, seeing as everyone has followed suit with Rule #5 and there are still plenty of seats left on the bus. But then this one girl gets on the bus. This girls steps onto the bus, and when you get on the bus you can clearly see that there are a good amount of opens seats, and plops down right beside me. And I don't mean sits next to me in her actual seat, but sits shoulder to shoulder, leg to leg next to me.
Being the passive aggressive individual I am, I proceed to not ask her to move over a little bit. Thus I proceed to stick it out and ride next to her until my stop on the bus, because that is honestly my only option I have left. So once the bus fills up and the bus starts to move, this girl becomes increasingly more and more visually irritated sitting next to me.
First she starts off by periodically moving around in her seat and letting out these pretty loud heavy sighs. When she starts to do this I become really confused about why she's being all extra like this. Then because I start to get confused about the situation I start to become super awkward regarding the situation I have been put in. Then after she's done (for the most part) with the whole moving around sighing bit. She proceeds to progressively turn her body in a complete 180 away from me and literally leans her body away from me. This actually ends up making me utterly dumbfounded. Like I don't understand why she feels so bothered by our current situation. It's not like I was the one to sit down next to her when there were open seats.
At this point I'm just praying that this girl is going to get off at the first bus stop because my awkwardness is at the max right now. But guess what? It just so happened that she was getting off at the same stop as I was. Well how splendidly grand. So when the bus gets to the first stop about half of the people on the bus end up getting off. This means that there are plenty of open seats for this girl to move to if sitting next to me is so aggravating and bothering her. But I guess she decides to stick it out because home girl doesn't budge an inch. So the bus starts to move again, we're both leaning away from each other as humanly possible, and we're almost to our stop. Then of course her bag falls over on top of my arm. I guess she thought I didn't mind her heavy bag to be sprawled out on top of me, because she just left it on my arm. At this point I am just fuming on the inside
I'm so fed up at this point with the blunted ignorance this girl holds regarding personal space, common courtesy, human decency, and common sense. I mean, she could've sat by herself when she first got on. She could've actually just sat in her own seat. She could've moved after half the bus got off at the first stop. She could've just moved her bag when it fell onto my arm. But did she? NO. So I'm actually so genuinely angry and stunned with this girl that I start to move my arm away from her and out from under her bag. And you know what she does? SHE JERKS HER ARM ALL AGGRESSIVELY AWAY FROM ME. I am literally so dumbfounded at this point, that I think this is the highest level of being dumbfounded that I have even been in my life.
After that I personally break rule #3 and stare her down for the remaining minutes we have left on the bus. I think I just felt so personally attacked and dumbfounded that all the large sums of awkward residing in me parted like the Red Sea and my assertiveness came to surface for a few short minutes. And thankfully, that was the last of that bus ride and hopefully the last I'll ever see of that girl.
Moral of the story: don't be a complete butt hole when riding the bus, because some people just want to go about there day without disastrous humans intersecting their course. So next time you ride a bus and you choose to sit next to someone when there are perfectly fine open seats, you really have no reason to be the one who becomes irritated. Just check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Sincerely,
The Girl Who Just Wants To Graduate College,
P.S. I'm pretty sure if I EVER see that girl again I might drop kick her in the face.
#MicDrop
