Bus therapy

What do you do when life gets you down? Phone a friend? Eat an ice cream? Punch a random tourist?

In the counseling field we are taught to constantly analyze our emotions and how they affect our behavior. It's nauseating; some days you're simply overwhelmed with yourself (and no, not in that extended-shower kind of way...)

The world turns its back on you and you feel rotten ... what options do you have left?

The answer is simple: ride the city bus.

There I was, late on a Thursday evening, fretting about increasing rates on student loans, comprehensive final exams looming, the stress and worry of finishing all my assignments on time, and being pissed off with life in general.

As I boarded the 80 to take me to the Kennedy Center, I paused from my selfish world and looked up at my fellow passengers. Most of them tired, rugged, and worn out from a hard day. Some were going to work, some just getting back- most of them had a very distant look in their eyes.

And then I realized- school is a privilege. I have the privilege to be in a financial position where I can take out massive loans. I have the privilege to have been educated well enough to enter a master's program. I have the luxury of classes and exams and deadlines and stressors, meetings and schedules and frustrations and chaos.

They are all an extravagant indulgence.

Suddenly the world became very big, and very manageable. And that's not bad for a buck-thirty-five.