I’ve been on my fair share of bus rides, both to and from MHC. Throughout my multitude of rides I have realized that I don’t hate bus rides like the majority of the population does. Maybe it’s because I have to go on so many busses that I’ve just become used to them.
I live on the east coast of Massachusetts in a small town outside of Boston, and in all honesty, it shouldn’t take more than two and a half hours, with little to no traffic, to get back to campus. However, I do not own a car (or have my license) and my family isn’t always able to come pick me up, so I take the bus. The Peter Pan bus, to be more specific, because it is the only bus service that comes directly to MHC. The bus makes the trip a little more than three hours long, but it’s not too bad.
This past break I only had to take the bus back to campus, but there was only one bus going to Mount Holyoke. That bus left at 10:15 a.m. from South Station, so I had to leave the house at 7:30 with my sister who works in Boston. With all the commuter traffic we didn’t end up in the city until about 8:30. Once there, I walked to the bus station, but because I had so much time on my hands I found a little coffee shop and decided to wait there instead. I used this time as “quiet contemplation,” not really doing much of anything: just people watching and listening to the coffee shop’s indie music.
After figuring out where to put my dirty dishes, I walked the rest of the way to South Station. The bus ended up leaving a little bit later than scheduled, but seeing as I had no plans or classes, I didn’t let it bother me. There was virtually no traffic on the roads and the ride seemed to fly by. Although that may be because I was too absorbed in my book, and feeling lucky that I don’t get carsick. Usually, I’m one of those passengers who sleeps or watches a downloaded episode of something on Netflix, but I wasn’t tired enough to do either of those. Instead, I was whisked away into a dystopian future, and before I knew it, we were at the Springfield bus terminal.
There was a half-hour wait before the bus to South Hadley was ready to leave, but I didn’t mind because I just listened to my music and went through my email inbox (which had gotten full after a few days of not checking). This was the only part of the trip that felt long to me, but that might be because I didn’t have my book to distract me from the slow ticking of the clock. Soon enough the bus was ready to depart and we were back on campus in what felt like no time. The total time of the bus trip was about three hours. The only bad thing that happened was once I was back on campus I went to the dining hall, but because it was on shorter hours I missed lunch.
So next time you have to take a bus, just think of it as “me time” and make sure that you have something to entertain yourself with and surely time will fly by.
If you would like to write for Her Campus Mount Holyoke, or if you have any questions or comments for us, please email hc.mtholyoke@hercampus.com.