The Jabberwock

Preface: I initially started writing this essay in my free time outside of school. It was going to be a firsthand account of an actual experience I had getting to Newton North from BLA but in the present tense. A few weeks after I finished the original essay, I was assigned a creative writing assignment in my English class where I was supposed to write an essay about a chosen value I believed but conveyed in the form of characters using Socratic dialogue. I realized that with a few modifications, I could submit the essay I already wrote and the result was this:

A few weeks ago I went from my school to Newton North high school so I could meet up with my cousin who is a student there. I thought it would be funny to surprise him by showing up to his school unannounced and without any sort of explanation as to how or why I was there. I also saw it as a sort of challenge, not in the sense that I was rebelling against his authority but rather in the sense that it was challenging for me to get there in the first place. So at 1:40pm on a Friday with nothing else planned, I started my long journey by boarding the 66 bus at my school. While I was waiting for the bus to depart I was greeted by a friend of mine from school who was one of the regulars on the bus. We found seats next to each other and began to catch up with one another. After a painstakingly long time the bus finally crept away from the stop and I began to make my way to Newton. My friend explained to me: the bus only ran twice a day, once in each direction, on a unique route that no other bus has. It’s meant to serve our school’s dismissal, but it’s inaccurate to call this bus a school bus because school buses won’t stop for random people on the street. 

“Does that mean random people who take this bus just end up getting lost,” I asked.

“Pretty much. The number on the bus changes depending on what leg of its route we’re on. It’s pretty confusing for people who have never been on this bus before. Speaking of “why are you on this bus,” she asked. “How did you even figure out it existed?”

“Well,” I explained, “I wanted to meet up with my cousin at Newton North and I realized that because his school gets out so much later than ours I can get there before the bell if I take this bus. Well, not just this one. I’ll probably have to make a transfer to the 59 at Watertown Yard.”

“Have you done this before?” she asked.

“No, but that’s what makes it fun. I highly doubt that anyone has ever gotten from BLA to Newton North without using a car. I could be the first.”

“What are you gonna do if you miss your connection?”  She asked.

I reach into my bag and pull out a pair of freeline skates. “I brought these just in case,” I said. 

She smiled as if she found it amusing the way I could turn something as ordinary as taking the bus into a challenge. “Do you take those everywhere you go?”

“Pretty much,” I joked. “It’s better for the planet than driving everywhere.”

“Not if you have an electric car,” she added.

“Even an electric car,” I answered.

“How can that be?” She asked.  “Electric cars don’t burn gasoline.”

“True,” I said, “but is burning gasoline the only thing that puts carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?”

“No,” she answered.

“And doesn’t most electricity from the power grid come from burning fossil fuels?”

“Oh yeah,” she said. “But shouldn’t electric cars have less of a carbon footprint than gas ones?”

“Generally yes. However most people who take public transportation have less of a carbon footprint than people who drive.” 

“I’ve never thought about that,” she said. “So is your ideal world just making people take the bus everywhere?”

“Partly. What I will say is that if everyone on the road were on buses we probably wouldn’t have this much traffic,” I said, as I pointed to the line of cars ahead of us. “If I had more time I would go more in depth telling you about it.”

“Maybe another time,” she said. “My stop is next. I admire the fact that you’re passionate enough about transportation to go out of your way to do all this. If you ever consider doing this again maybe I’ll join you.”

“Sounds good,” I said. Then we said our goodbyes and I continued on my journey alone. I checked the transit app on my phone to see when the next 59 was leaving and I realized it would be another 40 minutes until then. So I took out my skates and got off at a stop before Watertown Yard that was closer to my destination. From there I skated about 20 minutes along the smooth suburban streets of Newton before reaching the main entrance of the school. By then I had 20 minutes before the bell rang, plenty of time to explore the vast campus. Like many suburban schools, its budget was high. I had learned from my school’s outdated history textbook that a majority of funding for public schools in America comes from surrounding property taxes. With just 2 public highschools in all of Newton, it’s no wonder they were able to afford a full-scale renovation a few years back. It has a set of tennis courts, a pool, multiple gymnasiums and a playing field surrounded by a track that only gets used half the year. There is a daycare located a few hundred feet to the left of the main entrance that was put in as a resource for the students who want to go into childcare or teaching fields of work. I can’t help but think that if someone were to see that at my school, they would just assume our students have a high rate of teen pregnancy. Ironically, the only resource that the school seems to lack is transit access. The 59, the bus that runs past the school, runs once every 40 minutes on average. The Newtonville commuter rail station is a 10-minute walk from the school but all the inbound trains skip it from 1:12 and 7:12. Compared to my school which has 5 bus routes during the day and 13 during dismissal there is simply no comparison. After I finished exploring I went back to the main entrance and waited for the bell to ring. Once it did I kept my eyes out for my cousin in the vast swaths of students that poured through the halls. To my surprise he spotted me first. With a dumbfounded look on his face he asked me what I was doing at his school and I proceeded to explain everything that had happened leading up to that point. As the foot traffic in the halls started to die down we continued our conversation while he showed me around the different rooms in the building. Out of everything that I had just told him he seemed especially baffled by the fact that I had taken a bus and then skated to his school instead of just asking my mom for a ride. I explained to him that I cared more about being independent than getting places faster. I didn’t want to burden my mom with having to drive me everywhere, especially to really obscure destinations like Newton North. 

“You should just get your driver’s license then,” he said. “You’re 18 and you’ve had plenty of time.”

“That’s a good point,” I said. “I probably should focus on getting my license. But even if I had one it would only be so I had the option to drive in a pinch, not to replace my current habits with car-dependent ones.”

“You’re gonna need to own a car someday,” he said. “What do you even have against cars anyway?”

“A lot of things,” I said. “I think that this world would be better if there were less cars in it.”

“Yeah right. You know not everyone is as big a fan of taking the bus everywhere as you are.”

“True. But why do you think that is?”

“Because cars are a superior mode of transportation. People usually only take the bus because they can’t afford a car, like you.”

“But is it fair to say that cars are a superior mode of transportation even though they aren’t as accessible to people with low income?”

“Maybe not in that regard but otherwise, yes.”

“Ok then. Wouldn’t a superior mode of transportation be safer than other modes of transportation?”

“Ideally yes.”

“Then wouldn’t trains be the better mode of transportation? Statistically, they’re safer than cars.”

“In that way, yes. But trains don’t offer the same kind of flexibility that cars do. The reason cars caught on was because it allowed people to travel to places where trains didn’t go.”

“Then wouldn’t bicycles also be a contender for the superior modes of transportation?”

“In very specific instances yes, however in most cases no. Bicycles can’t go on certain roads like highways and their range is completely dependent on the person using them.” 

“So by that logic wouldn’t cars only be the superior mode of transportation for movement impaired people who need to travel long distances?”

“Why do you care so much about trying to prove me wrong? Are you trying to suggest that I’m somehow lazy because I don’t take the bus everywhere like you?”

“I don’t think that you’re lazy at all. I just want you to see that because of the town you live in and the people you’re around, it can be hard to envision a life that doesn’t revolve around the automobile. I just wanted to show you that you have the option to live car-free if you want to. That’s all.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to turn this argument. I don’t actually think that you’re lazy for not getting your driver’s license. In all honesty I’m kind of amazed by the fact you were even able to get here in the way that you did.”

“Thanks. I had fun doing it. Although it’s a little irritating how infrequent the public transit is out here.” I said.

“Most people who live in Newton have a car so for them it’s not an issue.”

“But isn’t it an issue that people like us don’t have access to reliable transportation?”

“Oh yeah. Forgot about that. I’ll call my mom so she can give us a ride.”

“Actually I was thinking we could try something a little different. If I’m not mistaken the next bus comes in 8 minutes.”