Life lessons- arising from the need to use public transport.

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!