SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA- The Traffic had backed up to a standstill along the exit I needed to take in order to make it to school, I even left an hour early though it’s only a 15 minute drive from my house in West Sacramento. When the clock hit 8:52am, only a measly eight minutes before my first class of the day, I hadn’t even gotten off the freeway much less parked, I was frustrated to say the least.
I could see it in the other drivers as well which lightened my mood a little, knowing I wasn’t the only one suffering. One after another cars began whipping wildly around other cars only to find themselves stuck one or two spots ahead of where they had started.
There was a decision to be made here. Should I Stick with Plan A and wait out this horrible first day of school madness… or should I choose a new route? Simultaneously cranking the wheel left and stepping on the accelerator the decision had been made to abandon Plan A and take a different route to the Campus.
Everything seemed on course as I was racing down Howe, already late for my class by a good 10 minutes and really feeling the stress about the coming day, when J St. suddenly came into view and offered me zero support. I was stuck again. Although in slightly less congestive traffic, traffic none the less.
Finally, I managed to get my car on campus. It felt like such an accomplishment I could have actually smiled a little.
Things were moving a bit quicker now and by no time at all the first parking structure was approaching fast; which also happens to be the busiest. Not being able to resist a gamble I pulled in and promised myself to only spend a couple minutes searching for a parking spot and then I would move on to the dreaded walk of shame from the back lots.
Almost immediately I saw someone pulling out and I knew the spot was mine. The gamble had paid off and it’s a good thing too, the clock on my phone had just hit 9:30am. I grabbed my Backpack and began my walk through the campus to Mendocino Hall where my class was scheduled to take place.
Walking through campus has become quite irritating during the peak of the day. Numerous people on skateboards that are made to go faster than your average skateboard while being controlled by students who appear to be just barley in control, seems like I have seen a good five ankles smashed by a runaway boards recently. Of course there are the cyclists weaving through the crowd as well as the scooter riders.
Then there is me… late and stuck behind some turtle paced pedestrian with a rolling bag in tow, it took every ounce of energy to not kick that pack over off its wheels and run by screaming like a mad man.
I held my composure and made it to class about 35 minutes late only to find a mob of people trying to add the class. Knowing I was already enrolled in the course I felt good about walking right past the entire group, all too occupied hammering the teacher with questions about adding the course to notice me. I sat right down in the front row as one student got “scared away”.
Attendance was called and I felt relieved in knowing the instructor couldn’t think of me as the one who showed up late on the first day.
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