Life lessons- arising from the
need to take catch public transport.
January month has to be the
funnest (if that’s a word) month of my life each year…well, only for the last
two. The last two Januaries have resulted in motor vehicle-related claims to
the amount of more than R200,000! I’m pretty sure that I am on some “No-Insure”
list somewhere!
This is the second January, in as
many Januaries in two years, that I have found myself on the receiving end of
the “sorry sir, the courtesy car is only for a period of 30 days” conversation
with an insurance company (I guess one needs to start summarizing insurance
contracts to the same extent and trouble that the insurers go to in drafting
them huh?). So for the second January…I am totally the dude who has a car
somewhere in the world, but simply cannot use it as the insurers are “busy”
sorting it out.
Life however does not stop when you
have an ongoing claim process thing that is being attended to. I have actually
found that life REALLY doesn’t care what your problem is. No, life carries on
(AF – as the young ones would say). Meetings need to be attended, work needs to
be driven to, (if you are a bachelor like myself) Laundromats need visiting to
get that errand done and so many other things that one takes for granted.
In the hustle to arrive on time…heck,
the hustle to simply arrive, I have come to be:
- frustrated,·
- humiliated and
- out right annoyed at life for what I perceived was “inconvenient and annoying” in terms of the “hardships” endured in getting around.
I have, however, come to laugh uncontrollably
at myself when I think of the attitude I have been having about this whole
insurance process. So I decided to pen a few gems from the last two weeks that
I hope I can proudly wear for the rest of my life.
1.
Uber
is expensive. Forget what you heard.
After three days
of catching an uber to and from the office (you know, just so that I do not
have to walk…and so that not too many questions are asked) and being more than
R700 deep…Ihad a serious coming-to-self moment. To think a taxi would have cost
no more than R60! So my only logical conclusion is that uber (as a primary
means of transport) is not for THE WOKE. Yes, call it when you have been at my
house after a few gin and tonics, but black man…uber is MAAAD expensive! Ngeke!
Life lesson…uber (as sole method of transportation) is expensive dude! Seriously!
Its actually shockingly expensive. Simple. Finished. Klaar. Wake up…
2. Why
pretend?
My car is in for
repairs. I am not going to die. Who cares if I am walking to and from the bus
stop? Who cares what people think? Surprise, surprise…people actually have
issues of their own in January as well. The need to fit the “young, successful,
black manager’ title is no longer for me. I actually wonder why I cared to
begin with. Walk…sweat…miss the bus by 3mins…request a lift to a run on
facebook. It genuinely takes nothing away from you. Life lesson…stop
pretending to have everything together. You will die and go broke in the
process of keeping up pretenses. Sometimes, we just need to go through some
stuff so that when we do rebound, people can really believe in better days to
come…(PS…another life lesson, driving a car itself isn’t success or a ‘rebound/comeback’…stop
thinking like that).
3. Walk
I have found a
ton of time to develop calf muscles outside the gym. That steep hill on the way
to my workplace in the morning ensures that its leg day every day. Lol. It also
ensures that I get a good heart rate going first thing in the morning. Life
lesson…walking also gets us to the final destination. One does not necessarily
need the fastest way to get there. Sufficient preparation (waking up on time)
and the right amount of walking will get you to life’s destination right on-time.
4. You
WILL miss a bus…deal!
Nothing funnier
than a bus that simply does not show up! I lie…nothing funnier than a commuter
waiting for a bus hoping, with each passing minute, that they will hear the
sound of the engine that is to carry you to your final destination! The moment
you really realize that its not coming (and you have this moment each minute
after you have hope that its coming) can be paralyzing to the point of you catching
the next bus (a whole hour later). I have however learnt to be flexible. To
know that there is a possibility of the bus not arriving. Possibility of it
arriving when I least expect or even immediately after I have made an
alternative plan. Life lesson…patience is a virtue for sure and opportunities
sometimes need patience to be realized and taken advantage of when they come
our way…but some opportunities will always show promise of arriving, but simply
never arrive. You need to set some “walk to the next bus stop” parameters in
your head so that you do not waste your whole life waiting. Other opportunities
will arrive JUST (and I mean JUST) after you have made an alternative…these
are dangerous. Get on the alternative plan you made! Do not look back! It had
its time and never showed up. Never regret the alternative plan because guess
what? Life ALWAYS works out the way it needed to.
5. The
bus/public transport is not punishment for a LIT festive season.
This one is more
serious. Funny how we get so accustomed to comfortable living that any little
bit of discomfort or inconvenience is seen as hardship. While growing up, there
were days where mom would borrow money from a different friend/neighbor than
she did the day before so that one could make it to school. Here I am, with the
financial means to take a taxi/bus…yet feeling like life is so hard for me
right now. Having money for the taxi/bus now is NOT hardship. Too often we take
for granted the privileges that we have become accustomed to. Too often we look
at the things we have for utility as the ultimate tools for living. Lesson
learnt…there is so much to be appreciative for, do not wait for “tough times”.
Also, take a look back whenever you are feeling “aggrieved by life”, remember
where you come from. I swear you have been through tougher times and more
depressing Mondays. Simply smile at the need to start walking to and from the
bus. Take the opportunity to develop your calves, to have some additional
reading time on the commute, to say hi to a different person each morning. Its
not a curse. Its one of life’s ways of breaking us out of monotony and routine.
Embrace, embrace, embrace! A lot of good can come from being uncomfortable
(including killer legs).
There are so many other lessons,
thought I keep it somewhat short because yall do not like reading…so these are
the ones I thought I would share.
My only prayer now is that the
Lord keeps me humble and grounded so that these lessons resound when all is (too) comfortable again. That I will be
sensitive in conversation with people who do not have. That I am gracious in
offering a lift, a convenience or a simple “take a look” to the enthusiastic kid
who comes up and says my car is really cool. Because end of the day…life is
about busses. Its about keeping fit (walking), meeting people (even the old
white man who is annoyed at your very presence) and about catching, missing and
planning when to catch the next bus!
