Because, hey, life is funny.
I saw someone run to catch the metro today. The doors closed on his face and he missed it. Obviously, then, he was a Canadian Alliance member. I giggled.
(This post has been closed-captioned for the sarcasm impaired.)
I saw a guy pull on a door that was clearly marked “push.” I’m pretty sure he was Klan. Fuckin’ racist, serves him right.
Recently I saw a man try to futilely flag down a cab. Doesn’t he know they don’t let stupid asshole lower middle class income people on? What a jackass. Quazzz, I feel for ya man.*
*Not being sarcastic *
*Sarcastic
Okay, I sumise that my inept fellow bus riders are rich because
A: Poor people usually have some experience riding the bus.
B: Statistically, any given person at my school is likely to be rich.
C: I personally know some of these people.
Us poor folk don’t get a chance to feel superior much. Can’t we feel smug for a moment because we are bus masters and the world of moneyed college kids is full of bus dimwits? I dress in rags and I live in a shack. I’ve got to have something to feel good about.
And can’t we get a big indignent when we hear people disparageing the form of transportation we’ve been using since we were children. I’ve had a bus pass every day of my life since I was 14. So imagine what it must feel like as I sit across from a manicured and Gucci’d freshman who sits complaining to her friend about “I hate to take the bus so much. It’s full of such freaky people- like eww! I don’t want to be around these people. It’s so trashy. And the bus drivers are so mean. The other day, one wouldn’t let me on with an expired pass! They let me on with expired passes in my hometown! I don’t see why this town can’t be like my hometown. And the bus there doesn’t smell. Not that I’d ever take it”
And yet I hear that every day. I had a roommate drop out of college because she couldn’t bear not being able to have her car on campus. I am not exagerating in the least. Her primary reason for dropping out of college was that she couldn’t handle the bus. I swear to god. I might even be able to find the thread I wrote detailing the long phone calls she’d make to her father about how unbearable it was to have to take public transportation.
Sorry folks, that stuff is funny. It’s funny to see kids that have never experienced reality be struck in the face with it. They suddenly have to deal with the crap we’ve been dealing with our whole lives. The lengths of their outrage at not being coddled and pampered can be hilarious. It’s funny to see their illusions shattered as they realize in college they arn’t the prom queen anymore and they are going to have to take the same bus and follow the same rules as everyone else. Because I’ve been doing that my whole life. And no matter how many tears you cry, how many threats you make to the bus driver, and how many lame ass excuses you make, you still gotta pay your buck, find a seat, and wait for your stop.
Um, Even, I am a public transit rider. I am quite a public transit rider. You may be familiar with my website, and with the fact that I have worked for the transit company.
And I still miss buses from time to time, believe it or not. It happens (this is the important part) to everyone.
Thanks for letting me know that occasional bad luck is justification for unwarranted assumption and derision.
even sven, have you ever missed a bus?
If you did, how would feel about being laughed at for it? And that people would make so many assumptions about your character for that simple spot of bad luck?
Maybe I should clarify. I don’t really think a girl missing the bus is funny. I was trying to defend my own story, in which boy tries to break the bus rules, and responds with rightous indignation about how much better his town is when he is told that isn’t the way things work around here. Which was pretty darn funny.
(and matt_mcl, you are my transit god…you have no idea how much I admire you)
Heh. Well, that’s okay then. Carry on. blush
even: you still called the guy a ‘pampered ass student who hasn’t had to get outside of the car his parents bought him at 16’ - all because the bus in his own home town, which could be the south Bronx for all you know, lets him on through the back door (there’s some latent sexual symbolism in there somewhere.)
If you really need to feel superior to someone, your public transit superpowers are a bit of a stretch.
Wow, thanks guys for your sincere concern about how unbelievably pathetic and empty you find my OP to be.
I have no doubt that most of you feel entitled to get on a bus whenever you wish, also.
The point was that this girl felt entitled to put herself above all else – the pack of people through which she barged her way, the rules of the transportation system, holding up traffic, etc.
There’s a reason why the bus driver pulled away when she was almost there – there was no bus stop.
So all right, maybe it was wrong to JOKE that her daddy’s paying for her education (I could have said she was fat and ugly, too, but we all know how that goes), but it’s still funny that her effort to exercise some inflated sense of entitlement failed. Because that’s what SHOULD happen.
**
Um, isn’t there something we can sandwich between rich and poor? I’m certainly not rich but I’ve never taken a public bus in my entire life.
**
So you must be very rich. Statistically speaking that is.
**
Hell, if you know 'em that’s different.
**
Poor? Statistically I thought people at your school were rich. Oh well, I suppose you can feel smug if it really helps.
Marc
Just out of curiosity - hijack approacheth - do the doors in your metro close automatically even if there’s something blocking the way? That’s how they work here, although people sometimes figure otherwise and shove a hand in, thinking it’ll stop. It doesn’t.
I agree that it’s a bit weak to suppose that someone who misses a bus is all sorts of negative things (but then again we didn’t see what the OP saw, so who knows).
However, I do have one observation, and perhaps some of you have noticed the same thing (or have fallen prey to the same thing): College is different from high school, or your “local” clique. For one thing, there are not the cliques (at least I never noticed any). The whole dynamic is different. And if a rich kid living a sheltered life is all of a sudden thrust into such a different environment, I can see some of the things happening in just the way even sven describes them.
One of my friends was, well, “pampered” might not be the exact word, but “spoiled”, I guess she was spoiled. Not rich, though. But, "indulged’ by those around her, in some areas. I tried to warn her that some of her attitudes and beliefs about How the World Worked were false, but you know how we all can be—we just don’t believe it until it starts happening to us. And when this particular friend went away for college, reports have it that she had to readjust her viewpoint on life in a lot of ways. Like the “Word Revolves Around Me” belief—well, that went out the window really fast at college. Being suddenly surrounded by a bunch of kids who really don’t give a damn about you, what you eat or don’t eat, how the teacher dealt with you and your delicate ego, how your parents treated you, etc…well, it can be a big shock for some very sheltered and/or spoiled kids.
Running for the bus = inflated sense of entitlement???
Cmon now, I think it’s safe to assume that you were really jealous of her running for the bus capabilities because you run like a girl. You must feel that if you did lower yourself to running for a bus everyone in the vicinity would immediately know your strengths and weaknesess.
Hm, I’ve never ridden a public bus. I grew up in a single-wide trailer house. My dad worked in mills and for the sewer department. My mom’s a school teacher. I admit the housekeeper didn’t have much to do, and the chauffeur was always complaining that driving us around in all those old used cars were really hurting his image, but they’re just servants. You don’t even want to get me started on the complaints the chef made over having to cook with food from a food bank.
[sub]Did ya consider the possibility that those of us who grew up in small towns never had the opportunity to learn to use bus service?[/sub]
Again, I don’t see he can tell a sense of entitlement from that. I mean, if he missed a bus and needed to get somewhere in a hurry, wouldn’t he, too, at least try to get the bus to stop?
BTW, here in sunny LA, it’s not that uncommon for a bus to stop at an intersection to let stragglers connecting from other busses on. They don’t always, mind you. But it’s not uncommon.
On behalf of girls everywhere, I take exception to that remark.
(Well, I DO run like a girl, but that’s okay because I AM a girl. But I am NOT a sissy…I can kick my grown brother’s ass and still look fresh enough to go clubbing afterwards:D .)
Ava
you know, if you saw someone running for the bus, and they missed it, you might have a small chuckle to yourself.
Whats particularly interesting, is that Qazz saw this, waited until he got to work, waited an hour, and then posted this thread.
Did you not just forget about it after a minute like anyone else would?
How could I forget after a minute? I had to stand at the bus stop with the dumb, perplexed girl for THREE minutes until the next bus came.
Hmmmmmm. Maybe I’m just an evil evil person for thinking this whole thing was a bit amusing, but I find it hard to believe that some of the respondents to this thread have never taken enjoyment from another’s misfortune (deserved, rational, EXPECTED misfortune in dumb girl’s case).
I smiled at a girl missing a bus. Small and mundane, sure, but at least I’m not hooraying someone’s capital punishment or Martha Stewart’s indictment.