We have all been on those annoyingly long bus rides as a part of our school or college trips. Every person on these trips finds a way to kill their time by reading, eating, sleeping, or singing. I have categorized them into five different categories:
1) The singers:
More often than not, these are the people who sit at the back of the bus and sing songs at the top of their voices. They are also the people who get the most insults and glares from others on the bus. There are many reasons for this hatred: Others don’t like the songs they sing, their singing is disturbing our sleep, and other activities of the non-singers and the most common reason is that these so-called singers are incapable of matching pitch. However, they constitute the largest part of the travelers and seem to have the most fun.
2) Food and Drink Junkies
They are those travelers who like to spend their entire time binging on foods and drinks and are hence always in need of a bathroom due to the latter. As we all know, ‘Time’ (and the bus) never stops for anyone, and Convincing the teachers to in turn convince the bus driver to stop is a herculean task in itself. Thus these categories of travelers become experts in controlling their bladders. They also litter the bus the most with their empty food packets and water bottles. They are the ones occupying the front of the bus as it’s the closest to the door, which in turn is closest to the bathroom and the restaurants. By sitting at the front seats, the food gets distributed to them first.
3) The Sleeping Beauties:
They are those travelers who can fall into a deep sleep at any given time during the bus ride. They’ll usually have earphones stuck into their ears to block everyone out (especially those singers, as mentioned earlier) and most probably even have a sleep playlist.
They are also the poor victims of candid photos that are taken of them when they are asleep. Mouths open, drool on their chins, limbs spread awkwardly, and comical expressions on their face.
4) The Gamers:
These people come up with a wide variety of games to entertain themselves throughout the generally boring trips. ‘Dumb Charades‘ is the saving grace of these travelers, ‘Atlas’ coming second to it.
These travelers move far and wide on the bus to find the next group of people playing an interesting game. They attract the most attention and have the loudest laughs on the bus. Very often, people randomly join in the fun from some far corner of the bus.
These people get shouted at by the ‘original players’ for ruining their score. They are generally very enthusiastic about winning even though it’s a leisure activity. They also tend to make the best of memories while playing these games.
5)The Lone Wolf:
These are the people who have had enough of dealing with other people in an enclosed space for such a long time. They stick their earphones in their ears to block out the sound that others make. They pretend to be asleep so that they don’t have to make conversation.
They generally take the window seat and stare out of it dramatically. Let’s be honest; every one of us has had enough of dealing with people and has pretended to be asleep at least once on a school trip. These are also the people who like spending time with themselves, and they end up reading a book or observing others.
All of us, while traveling, have been a part of one or more than one of these categories. So which one are you?
