Hello
everyone! Julie here, are you ready to talk transit?
Today
I’m not going to be talking about a moment on the bus from this week. The
reason is that I only took the bus once this week, so I don’t really have much
to talk about, but I will bring up a past story!
A
few months ago, when I first began to ride the bus, I had a pretty weird
encounter with this man. I was waiting for the bus and he walked up to the stop
like any normal man, the only difference is that he was staring right at me.
Now, this man didn’t do anything physically harmful to me, which I’m blessed
for, but he did give me a little scare. Our conversation went a little like
this:
“Hey
there, you look like a smart girl, do you think you could change the weather?” Now when he said that I began laughing because
if he was trying to pick me up, it sure wasn’t working. I did reply though, I
casually explained that I appreciate the comment but I wasn’t smart enough to
change weather, but I wish I could. “What a shame,” he said. And I really
thought the conversation was over, but I was wrong. He continued talking,
asking me where I was like, which was very creepy, and what I did for a living,
again very creepy. I did all I could to change the subject from me, to him. So
when he did finally start telling me about himself, I began to wish I was mean
enough to just walk away but I wasn’t.
The
things I know about this stranger are things I wish I didn’t here. He told me about
his past; how he was always so competitive in school and how he wishes he could
go back and make actual friends. And he eventually got to what he did now. “I’m
a photographer actually,” he stated, “Not professionally, but it’s more of a
hobby.” This is when my brain began to scream, “He’s a creeper Julie, just back
away slowly…” But, of course I didn’t. The good news was that I finally saw the
bus I was waiting for, so I stepped closer to the edge. What I didn’t expect was
him to step closer to it to. “You know, I’m actually looking for more models.” I
smiled as well as I could, gave him my luck, and walked on the bus. I made sure
to sit close to other people so he couldn’t sit near me, and put my headphones
in so I wouldn’t be disturbed by anyone, anymore.
I
guess that’s the one day I’ll never forget about when I began taking public transportation.
It’s the first story I’d tell people when they ask me how my experience has
been and it always will be. If there is one story that can keep me talking
transit, it’s this one!
