Oh no, I missed the bus!

Unlike personal transportation, where one can depart whenever they choose, public transportation tends to be less lenient in terms of time schedules. In my area, intervals between buses vary between 30 minutes to three hours so missing the bus can ruin a big part of your day. The worst part is that you are never certain if you’ve missed the bus or not. Sometimes you hope that there’s a small delay so that you don’t miss work or school, but other times it can come early and leave you without you knowing. Also, the bus almost never arrives at the specified time so you either worry that it comes too early or that there’s heavy traffic that will make you run late. Either way, the time gaps between the buses should be a lot closer to each other since there are people who need to use them. 

From Home to Pace

From Pace to Home

  

Nothing feels worse than waiting two or so hours to take a bus and missing a class or an appointment. While this happens, your mind starts to compose thoughts of self-stupidity, blame, and other negative ideas that make you feel even worse about missing the bus. Depending on who your peers are, some of them may have sympathy or neglect when they hear you missing your ride. Some people may understand your situation and not put you down, however others might condescend you, write you up, mark you absent, or even have you lose your job because you had to wait hours for another bus. A lot of stigma can also occur if it happens consistently, since relying on the bus isn't in your control. For me, I try to balance school and work so that I can concurrently do both. Since school is my bigger priority, I try to revolve my work schedules based on my school days, which is already hard. Add the reliance of utilizing the buses and you have a potential recipe for disaster, especially since I use the bus to get from one place to the other.