A Bus More Traveled

“Wow, you take the bus. That is so environmental of you!” This is what I hear often before I reveal my secret. It’s not that I am environmental, it is a necessity.  See what most people don’t realize I have never learned to drive a car.

See life sort of got in my way and led me down a different path. I often attribute this non driving to the first car incident.  I was five years old and going to McDonalds with my grandmother and we had an accident.  It had rained earlier that day and the drive through entrance was a bit slippery. Instead of going in the entrance we ended up through a rail and hanging off of the ravine.  The individuals nearby told us not to move until help arrived. This was to a young girl forever and a day. I can’t remember how long it was because I was young. Perhaps it was only thirty minutes but that began the scar of the car.

When I was older, I was given a chance to either go to driver’s education or Florida. One would say hey that’s a no brainer go for the education and get your freedom right? But alas, I was a stupid kid and I went for the non parental guided Florida trip.

The final push to no driving came when I was much older. I was newly married and my father-in-law decided he would take the on this situation and teach me to drive.  Let me give you a small synopsis on the background of this guy. He is not a nice person.  I could go into sorted details but I won’t. When you hear the Grinch song during this time of year, just think of him that way.  Anyway, he ordered me into the car and began to bark out the different parts and told me to go. We got as far as a major road before I fell apart. He was quite angry needless to say adding to the fear of driving.

Please don’t get me wrong, unlike some of my friends, I really like taking public transportation. Especially when I travel to new cities, my friends who travel with me often call me the rain man of public transportation. When I went to New York with a group, they laughed when tourist were asking me which subway goes where and even more astonished when I gave the correct answer.

So I travel on foot, bike and bus. Often if not most in the passenger seat of a car seeing and guiding the driver to a path less traveled.