Letting the right bus go

Photo by lululemon athletica

I missed my bus today.

There was no frantic chasing, no dramatic shouting, no scene whatsoever at all.

In fact, you wouldn't believe how I just let the bus go.

I didn't realise that I was the only one left at the bus stop. There was no bus in sight and I just glanced across the road for a moment, thinking of ideas for an article I was due to complete by tomorrow. Just then, as I turned back, I saw a bus speeding past my bus stop. I managed to catch the bus number from the plate fixed at the back of the bus – 198 – the only bus from that bus stop that I could take.

As I watched the bus speeding into the distance, a feeling of foolishness overpowered me. It was only then did I realise that there was no one else around. I had waited 15 minutes for a bus with a frequency of 15-20 minutes and it didn't stop because the only person at the bus stop didn't flag it and nobody on that bus was alighting at that stop. What were the odds?

Apparently it was 100% at that particular moment.

And just then, as the bus faded from my sight and merged into the busy traffic at the expressway, a thought came over me.

Life is exactly like that. We wait for opportunities to come our way much as the same way we wait for the right bus to bring us to our destinations. However it takes just a momental lapse in concentration or a little distraction for the opportunities to slip us by not unlike the same way we miss the right bus because we were looking elsewhere for just 2 seconds.

And it probably will be a good analogy for relationships as well. Looking for love is a little similar to waiting for a particular bus. Like the bus that left me feeling foolish, sometimes, the right person may have entered our lives but we may not be aware of it until he/she leaves because we are not paying enough attention or because we have other priorities.

Sometimes, we need to chase a bus because it is leaving and we want to get on it. If we are lucky and the bus driver notices us and is kind enough, he/she will stop and let us board. However, if the chase really started too late or if the bus driver did not notice us or he/she did but pretended not to, we will end up with cold stares from strangers who see us fools chasing after a bus that had no intention to stop for us.

And sometimes, like the way we are blinded by love, we develop astigmatism and board the wrong bus. Those who realize their mistake early get off the bus at once and face only the embarrassment of that moment. Those who do not realize their mistake until it is too late, i.e. until the bus has gone off course from their destination, suffer from not only embarrassment and shame but may become lost for a while and be faced with the hassle of planning how they can move on from the off-course track.

In the real world, I eventually managed to board another 198 which came 15 minutes after the first one left. In the world of analogy however, I am still stuck in an off-course track looking for the right bus to bring me home…

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I wrote the above post in an old blog more than 4 years back. It's one of those timeless pieces that I would like to share with all my readers, yes – you included, as Valentine's Day approaches. Hope you find your right bus soon… and when you do, promise me you'll not just let it go ok?

Recommended Resources For Your Valentine's Day

Panic Away – A Revolutionary New Technique To Cure Acute Anxiety And Panic Attacks In Easy-To-Follow Steps Without Any Medication!

The Social Strategies – Overcome Shyness And Social Phobia… By Playing Games!

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Tagged as:  bus analogy. life · love · relationship · valentine