September has always been my favourite time of year. Even with the beginning of school, I find myself so excited to be back in the classroom. It is a new beginning for all of us. We can finally let go of the year prior and make a new promises to ourselves to be on the very top of our academic game. With the changing of the seasons, I find myself yearning to be better in every regard. I’ve been getting up early, eating well-balanced meals regularly, doing all my readings, and going to all of my classes. While these things are not necessarily impressive (the bare minimum, actually), I am still relishing in my newfound productivity. 

Even though I am privileged enough to own my own car, I have decided to take the bus to school when I can. You know, the rising cost of living and everything. I’ve become a regular user of the 11, 6, and 9. On the fateful morning of September 13th, things were no different. I should have known just to hop into my little Kia Rio the moment I saw the bus I was waiting for pass by with the sign “PLEASE TAKE NEXT BUS.” The next bus wasn't far behind, just under five minutes away. So I waited, getting onto the next bus—which also should have displayed the “PLEASE TAKE NEXT BUS” sign after my stop seeing how crammed it already was. 

This bus was packed. I was standing, holding onto the railing for dear life, while simultaneously trying not to elbow the people standing next to me in the face or fall onto the person who was lucky enough to grab a seat in front of me. No matter how many people were crammed onto this bus, the driver continued to stop for others waiting outside at the stops. He yelled for us to continue moving backwards, and people were sardined all the way to the back. Both doors were continuously blocked, and I even watched one kid miss his stop as he couldn’t push through the overwhelming crowd that had accumulated. Of course, the bus driver wouldn’t be able to see through this swarm either, but he continued to let people on the bus. 

It was at the Blackburn at Trent stop when everything started going south for me. I remember texting my boyfriend about how hot it was on the bus, and from that point I knew what was about to happen. As soon as I slid my phone into my pocket, the heaving began. The heat got to me—sweat had been accumulating on my forehead since the second I got onto the bus, but now it rolled down my face as an indication of what was now inevitable. The bus haulted to a stop and I pushed through the crowd with a hand clamped over my mouth, people apologizing to me as I had to elbow and step on toes in order to make it off the bus. As soon as my feet touched the grass, I crumbled to my knees and threw up.  

I bet you’re thinking, dear Reader, “Why in the hell would you write a newspaper article about this? Are you not humiliated?” 

First, I will tell you no, I am not humiliated to my core about this, as I am sure many people have already been made aware of the girl who puked getting off the bus. I was a little embarrassed at first, rightfully so, but I also knew how hilarious this whole ordeal was. I imagined myself as another passenger watching this event unfold. I would have been so bewildered if someone pushed me on the bus the way I did, but then watching what followed, I would have been like, yeah, that was fine. I am also telling you this to reassure you, that even in university, these things happen. I’ve realized that my experience being 20 in my third year has been pretty similar to being five in Kindergarten. 

With Peterborough being very much a “college town,” and with Trent continuously accepting huge numbers of new students every year, I would have thought that there would be an adequately growing bus system. Furthermore, we are also in the midst of a housing crisis, meaning that there are too many people and not enough homes to house them all. Does this alone not imply that there would be a transportation problem within this town as well? 

It seems to me that Trent University, as well as the City of Peterborough truly do not care about the students they wring for all their money, but rather about how to maximize profit without giving anything back to said students. 

At first I thought to myself, well that is just the way the bus is sometimes. This is true, to an extent though. What keeps me from holding this position fully, however, is that this keeps happening on Peterborough public transit. I don’t mean me specifically throwing up on the bus—that would be a personal problem—but rather, I meanthat even though since that day I have been lucky enough to snag a seat, I am still seeing people being unsafely crammed into these buses. I am seeing people miss their stops, or miss the bus altogether with the rising number of “PLEASE TAKE NEXT BUS” messages. 

This is not the first time in Peterborough history in which the bus system has failed the citizens of Peterborough, but rather the unavoidable consequence of years of continuous under-funding and disproportionate allocation of resources. I do not wish to speak ill of our generous and thoughtful bus drivers who do this often thankless and underappreciated job. My personal negative experiences of the bus system do not come from these individual drivers, but rather from the system in which they operate. I can imagine that as these bus drivers are facing their own issues with being underpaid and overworked, that they are simultaneously thinking about us, as students who are also struggling. It makes sense as to why they stop and allow for people to become unsafely crammed onto these buses; they know the unfortuanate reality that because of the current system, we may not make it to where we absolutely need to be. This system has failed not only the people it intends to serve, but also the people they employ. 

There have been positive modifications to the Peterborough transit system as of this September. They are promising ratifications as well, with the implemation of four new bus drivers and modifications to the current routes that previously had limited access to parts of our community. While positive and promising, I ask if they are sufficient. I believe that we will find at least an inkling to the answer come second semester, as we will likely see an influx of students transferring from other schools, or beginning their academic journey late into the academic year—a precursor to what we will see in the coming academic year when Trent no doubt accepts another record number of new students. 

Regardless of the underlying systemic causes of my embarrassing moment on the bus, I will still publicly apologize for my actions. I am very sorry to everyone who had to watch that unfold. I am also apologetic towards my professor and seminar leader, as I couldn’t make our first class because of this incident. I hope they read this and connect the dots back to my unhinged emails I sent while dwelling in the shock and embarassment of this event. I hope you have laughed with me, but I hope you are also more critical of the things going on around you, as this is a simple example of how systemic problems will affect us in ways we would never think about otherwise. 

Lastly, remember to thank your bus driver, you do not know what they have had to deal with already that day.