Don't wait up

The following is an excerpt of a blog post by Chronicle blogger Jacob Wolff, published Nov. 12 on his blog, Making a Good Second Impression.

What is it that makes all of us Dukies "Dukies?" What is the one thing that everyone can look back on and say: "Yep, that happened to me." There are many potential answers, but I can refute most: some people have never gone to a game at Cameron Indoor, some people have never had the experience of waiting in line for 20 minutes to get an omelette during brunch at the Marketplace, some people haven't even gone to Bostock to study the day before a final, only to fall asleep for 10 straight hours in one of those comfy lounge chairs by the windows.

If there is one universal experience everyone at Duke has gone through, I say that it's running to catch a C-1 only to have the bus driver slam the door in your face and drive off while cackling. I think I can safely say that almost everyone at Duke has had a bus pull away from them right as they were sprinting across the quad to catch it. (This can be very funny for observers. The best part is being on a bus and watching it all happen. You see the person sprinting, and you just know they aren't going to make it. The look on their face as they knock on the door as it pulls away: priceless!)

Some people get upset at the bus drivers. Some students think it's how the drivers get back as students for how we treat them. Now, I don't know if that's the case. I assume their regulations say that they should leave at a certain time, and not wait for the dashing students. This makes sense, the bus has to leave sometime, it can't wait for every student sprinting to the bus stop. But many swear the bus drivers derive some pleasure from making us run, only to pull off at the last second...

Though officially I'll go on record saying there is no malicious intent, the cynical part of me has seen the drivers smirk as they pull away, and knows that a few might not just be "following regulations" by leaving quickly. Or I suppose they could be following regulations and just so happen to take some pleasure in the results: rules and pleasure aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Could you really blame a bus driver for doing it though? I'm not saying every (or any) driver does this on purpose, but I sure as heck know I would. I don't want to seem preachy, but we really don't treat the bus drivers very well. I can't imagine how many drunken people throw up on the buses each weekend, only to leave the mess for the driver to clean up. Even if nobody throws up, the drivers still have to deal with loud intoxicated kids who view the bus more as a right than a privilege. Yes, we pay for it with our tuition; but that doesn't mean we should treat the drivers as terribly as many do. I do have to say, I myself am guilty of not being the best bus rider. I've been very loud, very obnoxious on the bus. I even think a friend and I once had a pull-up contest using those bars above the seat on the bus once (which I won, with three-fourths of a pull up!). I'm sure bus drivers hate me just as much as the next kid.

I've presented this as a universal Blue Devil experience: I lied. It has never happened to me at Duke (yet), and I take great pride in it. Though not a city boy, I am very adept at knowing when to run for a bus (and when not to), when to plead with a bus driver with my puppy dog eyes to open a door (and when it would only lead to exhaust in my face). It's probably the one skill I am most proud of at Duke.

Jacob Wolff is a Trinity sophomore. His blog can be accessed at secondimpression.chronicleblogs.com.