Public Transport - Rant

When I don’t have a ride home from work, I need to catch a bus, a train and then the subway like happen 2 days ago.

A group of teenage girls was in the same bus as me, they talked loudly about guys, girls and stuff without any interest. They were completely ignorant and presumptuous and they made me sad because I only remembered how I fought for real conversation when I was younger and all my pseudo friends only wanted to talk about guys they kissed or slept with.

After that was the train that was late as usual and pissed me off because I already was late for class (I’m finally learning how to drive and here we have to attend 32 driving classes to take the final exam). I bought my ticket and a stupid guy asked me to take him along to the platform with my ticket, I didn’t answer him because it didn’t matter, he walked behind me either way before the doors shut down.

On the platform one more guy decided to try and get my attention, I was waiting quietly while smoking a cigarette and that dumb ass decided it was fun to walk ahead of me, stop in front of me and talk to me in a low voice. I didn’t even understand what he was saying but the last time I tried to rush off someone like him, I unconsciously started a fight where other people jumped in just because they wanted to kick anyone, so I just ignored him. A family was behind me and their son was being a stubborn and noisy kid, one more thing that pissed me off.

The train finally arrives and as usual it was crowded with smelly, noisy and uncivil people. Not all of them of course but it was enough to annoy me too.

Why I am writing this? Well, I survived but my temper was touchy and it was hard for me to calm down. How do you cope with this? How do you stay calm?

I can’t avoid situations like this and even when I prepared myself, it affects me no matter what.
My will was to scream or punch them right in their faces, I can’t do that for valid reasons and I can’t teach them to respect other people by keep down the conversations, listen to their horrible music with headphones or avoid to stop in the middle of the path. It affects me more than I wanted to, sometimes it makes me want to cry and then I became self-conscious about my wet eyes.

It is just here or everyone else on the world has the same troubles as me with public transport?

I hate public transport. But if you have to use it, it would be good to learn how to cope. I think mindfulness would help you through. Learning not to listen to the distractions. Learning to block them out.

Learn to breathe, in through the nose and out through the mouth. It is called "smelling the roses and blowing out the candles". It helps center you and helps you group. It takes practice, but it calms you down so you don't get anxious. Focusing on what you are doing helps too.

There are so many other and different people than us. I remember being in Walmart and freaking out because of yelling kids. I started carrying my xanax on me just for those reasons.

I hope you feel better soon. I hope that the rant helped.

In our resource thread there is a site about mindfulness. Check it out...

Hugs, Karen...

Thanks :D

I try to breathe and ignore the outside and there are days without any nervous incident but I get so angry sometimes with these kind of situations. I don’t need to watch the news to lost faith in humans, I just need to get outside.

At least I can be a jerk and discharge my frustration when I try to leave the train and people are trying to enter without waiting for the other people to leave, they literally block the exit. So I just use my body constitution (I’m very tall, almost everyone is shorter than me) and open a path pushing everyone who’s dumb enough to not wait for others to leave first.

I ride public transport since I was 10, so it's been 14 years dealing with this and I still feel unconfortable.

I'm so anticipating my own transport... but the gas, insurance and maintenance are so expensive that I have to work really hard to get a decent rise to support a car.

the best way for you to feel comfortable and relaxed everyday from transportation is indeed your own car. both of you are right, with everything added up, it can be expensive.

first path on getting your own car is saving as much money as you can but don't be those extreme cheapskates on tv. that's disgusting.. no dumpster diving for you missy!

in malaysia, the majority citizens here uses cars. about 99.9% i'll say. not a lot of people use the subways here altho the bus can be a wee bit crowded but nothing comparing to traffic hour. there's even this road here called the "jam until you cry highway." it's real.

i hope you're able to get your sweet ride pretty soon!! best of luck (: