Dear Kids on Spring Break

I get that you're all excited to be off from school for an extended period of time. I get it. It's fantastic. You're not at the point of your life where you'd be using that time to go to the library and study for an upcoming midterm, because you're probably all around fifteen. I get that. Spring break, whoot whoot, or whatever.

Maybe it's just my age showing, but I tend to think that people who are loud, noisy and generally obnoxious and dropping the F-bomb every third word in a sentence are in need of a thesaurus and discipline. For instance, this sentence probably isn't something you'd say in front of your grandmother:

I had such a f***ing great time last f***ing night! I f***ed her f***ing good! That c**t was f***ing gagging for my f***ing c**k.

That said, if the person you had been with last night overheard that on the bus, you'd probably never get any action again. Just saying.

But at the age of fifteen (or thereabouts) I'm sure that you're very mature and brilliant and understand how the world works or so you think. I remember being 15 and thinking that I was smart. I also remember being 19 and thinking that 15 year olds had a lot of growing up to do. And guess what, at my age now (not 19...) I think that 19 year olds have a lot of growing up to do too.

That includes prioritizing your life and understanding what's important. But, of course, I'm sure at the age of 15 you think that having sex is the most important thing ever because you'd just die if you graduated from high school still a virgin. But I'm pretty sure that's a plot point from a movie franchise.

Stop thinking with your little head, start thinking with your brain. Chances are that in 5 years, you won't care if you 'gave it' to someone good over spring break. You'll have bigger issues to deal with.

Sincerely,
A girl who's grown up, just a little bit

Dear Mellow Teen,

I saw you on the bus last Tuesday while I was on my way to school. You sat down on the bench seat across from me. I knew you were probably supposed to be at school already, since it was past 9am already. You dropped a backpack on the seat next to you and you start pulling out your materials.

A small baggie full of... dried leaves. A bunch of papers for rolling. A lighter.

You didn't even look up at me, or make eye contact with anyone else for the matter, as you started rolling up the first joint.

A small fold, a little tuck of the 'leaves' into place, roll roll roll and then with a swift lick, you 'seal' up the long edge and fold in the ends. And then repeat until you had five done. Then you tucked everything away and pulled out your phone to make arrangements to 'meet-up' and you told the person you were with to 'bring the cash' for what you had.

I have nothing against entrepreneurship. I really don't. However, I think there is a time and a place for everything. And the time and place to prepare your merchandise should probably not be on public transit (where there are security cameras and microphones - if the signs on board of the bus are anything to go by). And the transit cops are actual police officers with actual handcuffs and guns and whatnot. So... Probably not the best of ideas. At all.

I can think of a million things I'd rather do on public transit before rolling up joints and making arrangements to sell them. Such as... taking a nap, listening to music, texting people on my phone, reading notes for a upcoming test (let's face it - I always have an upcoming test!), twiddling my thumbs... All of which would come before being caught via audio visual equipment dealing drugs on the phone. It's really not worth your future (in getting real job) to be doing such things (on public transit and otherwise).

Sincerely,
Girl was listening to music (and texting people)

Dear Readers (if you're still here)

I don't know if anyone still reads this blog... but if you do, hello!

It has been a long time since I've blogged. I've still been taking public transit, and I'm (still?!) in school. I finished one degree and now I'm working on yet another. It's been very busy for me, but I'm hoping to (finally) be able to make some time for this blog again - I've really missed blogging about crazy (and sometimes awesome) people on public transit.

So if you bare with me, I'll be getting stories up. I'm hoping to be able to post once every two weeks.

Sincerely,
Michelle

Dear Lady with the Autistic Child

So I saw you on the bus a while ago and you seemed like an alright type. I mean, I don't go out of my way to notice people on buses these days. I noticed that you had a small child with you, maybe around the age of 4-5?

He was noisy. So incredibly noisy. And he was running around on the bus while it was moving and you weren't making any efforts to slow him down. A well-meaning gentleman decided to talk to you about it, stating that perhaps you ought to do something about your child (like maybe ASK him to sit down?) before he (or someone else) got hurt. And what did you say to the well-meaning man?

Oh, he doesn't need to behave. He's autistic.

...

Oooookay then. Because that suddenly makes it better? Your son looks to you for social cues. He looks to you to know what's right and what's wrong. Perhaps he does have autism (I can't tell by looking a kid - for all I know he could be just bad at behaving on buses), but that is no excuse not to have him behave on public transit.

No excuse at all.

Sincerely,
Someone who knows better.