Buses take you where you think you are going. Only where you think you are going because sometimes you get lost even if it’s not your first time. I use the bus because my vehicle was totaled in an accident in 2022. Although I am from Atlanta, I never knew how to ride the bus. Spending most of my teenage years living outside of Atlanta and a few adult years in another state I never became familiar with the routes because I had a car.

The bus gives you a chance to not have to focus on the road and see streets, people and sights you wouldn’t see by just driving and going to your direct intended destination. And sometimes a chance to see yourself in situations you may not otherwise experience.

As an adult I’ve remembered things I’ve never thought were apart of my life such as being a victim of the black market and being child, sex and human trafficked. Some people don’t believe they can escape those realities but I met a nice man that made me confront my reality of the pursuit of happiness being your own journey and outlook.

The man approached me as I sat at the bus stop waiting at night to go to a shelter where I live. He asked was I waiting for him and I said no, I’m waiting on the bus. He said he had a place near the bus stop and asked did I want to go there. I said no. He asked how much? I said for what…I don’t work like that. I asked him did he think my Steve Madden combat boots were nice. He said yes. I asked him did he like my heart printed Wal-Mart jeans and he said yes. I asked him did he like my hair and he said it looked nice. He said he was from Mexico City and had only been here 60 days. I told him no thank you to his offer and the bus came up the street.

As the bus approached the stop where we were I wished him well and he actually hugged me and we smiled and laughed about the interaction. He doesn’t know me and I didn’t know him. Based off what I have experienced in life, objectification and what I have remembered about my childhood of being trafficked for sex, I though about my interaction with him as him politely thanking me for my beauty and poise and complementing me by wanting to pay for my time. That’s not anything I do but I choose to take it as flattery instead of an offense.

I understand the nature of interaction possible between adult men and women and although I don’t engage in activity such as that I know it’s apart of life that everybody may not think about but I have to ride the bus and not go to jail for being offended and acting out or a dark place because I survived that in my childhood and will continue to be beautiful as an adult. I choose happiness over being under my experiences. I know I am always going to be in a peaceful state of mind no matter where I am going on a bus or another mode of transportation. I choose to overcome not just be a survivor.