High School Horrors: Why I Hated Bus Rides as a Teenager
School Bus Nightmares as a self-conscious teenager
I was in my freshman year of high school and both of my parents worked, so I rode the bus home since I was too young to drive.
I took two different buses in the morning and the afternoon. My morning bus was always extremely full and it didn’t help that my stop was the last stop, so seats were extremely limited.
One time, there were literally a dozen kids standing because the bus was so full and there were no seats left. It was quite the ride.
In the afternoon, I took a bus with a bunch of kids I actually knew which made the ride so much more enjoyable. My stop was the second stop so I was never on for very long.
I was a few weeks into my freshman year when I had to see a teacher after school. I stayed as late as I could before I knew the bus would leave before booking it out of the school to catch it on time.
I shit you not, there were two seats left with one kid in each and when I asked if I could sit there, the girl just glared at me. She and the boy in the seat across from her were very clearly flirting or boyfriend and girlfriend or something because they kept looking at their phones and giggling at each other.
Usually, I wouldn’t have a problem with this, except that they had taken up the last two seats on the bus.
If you two want to flirt, just sit next to each other for fuck’s sake. I ended up sitting next to the girl, but she did not seem happy about it.
At one point, the guy smiled in my direction so I smiled back before realizing he was smiling at the other girl. I timidly shrunk in my seat and kept my nose buried in my backpack for the rest of the ride.
One of my other friends ended up having the same problem with this girl where she just glared at my friend for requesting to sit next to her.
My friend was a little less self-conscious than me and straight-up told this girl off for not being aware of her surroundings. She forever remains a legend in my mind for that move.
Later in the year, I ended up taking a different bus in the afternoon with maybe two dozen kids on it max. Although the driver had to pick up middle schoolers first so the bus was always late by twenty minutes, I preferred it so much more over the other bus.
Another weird experience I had was on the morning bus. There was this kid at my stop who was just, well, all right he was nasty. His hair was always greasy, you could smell his breath as he talked to you, and it smelled like he never showered.
As if this wasn’t enough, he would just plop down next to you without asking, and start talking your ears off. It wasn’t a conversation, it was a let-me-talk-and-you-listen rant. Every single morning.
And it wasn’t even interesting stuff. It was stuff like his antique doll collection and what he had bought for them that weekend, or how much he hated his dad.
I have nothing against boys who collect dolls, but this kid talked your ears off to the point where you wish you could just rip them off to avoid having to listen to his speeches every morning.
My friend and I would literally be like, “please sit next to me so he doesn’t sit next to me instead” every morning. Most days we were lucky, but the unfortunate circumstance when we ended up sitting next to him happened, and you just had to suffer through it.
It was 6:45 in the morning and the last thing we all wanted to happen was to have a conversation with someone. Especially someone who doesn’t know how to shut up.
I ended up giving the bus driver a card that year because he had to deal with so many shitty people.
To anyone who rides a bus, you say good morning/afternoon/evening when you get on and thank you when you get off. It really isn’t that hard.
I ended up moving after my freshman year and my mom became a stay-at-home so she drove my brother and me from there on out.
As much as I miss Colorado, I sure as hell don’t miss the bus rides in the morning.
