Other Side of the Fence: Seven Days Without A Car

View before 6:50 bus.

Starting Wednesday before last (September 29 for clarification), I started my seven-day challenge to go without using my car, poor George. It was a very enlightening experience.  Before my challenge, I took the bus the majority of the week, but I always had the safety net of my car. Oh! There is a 20 percent chance of rain – I’ll drive. Oh! I might possibly be late for the bus – I’ll drive. Oh, I might have to run an errand for work - I’ll drive.

Afternoon view on Colorado Ave.
while I wait for the number 10 bus.

There are a lot of reasons for my going without a car for 7 days, but we’ll focus specifically on my wanting to look at the life of many of the people we serve at Catholic Charities. I don’t have any crazy stories from my adventures, but just tales of Murphy’s Law and its effects. The first day of my challenge went flawlessly smooth. It’s the second day, in which the tales begin. I slept through my first alarm and woke up at 6:30 for my 6:50 bus. For those of you who know me well, know this had to be an interesting
experience. Friday, I found myself running through downtown Austin (granted only a block) looking like Steve Carrel in Little Miss Sunshine. Except I had my bareley stuffed navy blue backpack and a cardboard box held for dear life in my arms. The box was full of information about Spring Hill for a college fair; and I found myself running to catch my second bus in attempts to not have to sit on the bus bench for another half hour. At the bare minimum, I provided a much-needed chuckle for the bus driver.  The following Monday, I found myself walking the route of my second bus, because I missed it. As I crossed the street after getting off my first bus and started to walk the block it takes to get to the next bus, I found the 4 Montropolis bus zoom past my stop on its morning route. There were days where the bus ran late and it took me way to long to get home. Then I remembered, I looked around and remembered that for many people on the number 10 bus departing downtown at 4:30, this bus is their only way home. This bus is full of people in very different situations than me, such as:

• The mom who just picked-up her son from school; they are asleep on the bus because she works two jobs and he worries about her.
• The man who is blind because of untreated diabetes.
• The college graduate who moved to the Texas Hill Country because he needs medical care for his lung disease caused by his work
• The girl who worked an extra long shift at Chuckie Cheese’s

My weekend without a car is not full with as many stories, but it does provide a way for reality to remind me that I am fortunate to have my car. I adventured to a local coffee shop / community center for reading on the porch with Pamela, which turned into hanging out and talking with her. I now use a new bike route whenever I go up towards St. Edward’s University. I did take the bus to church on Sunday, which truly showed me the luxury of owning my car. I left my house at 10:05 for an 11:30 service and adventured from there. I stopped in downtown for about twenty minutes to catch my second bus, finding myself wondering where there might be facilities; I adventured into the very popular Starbucks. Listed on their bathroom door was a lovely sign stating that only customers can use the facilities and that a key must be requested from the cashier. I can understand the need for this – at the foundation of the sign, it keeps the “unwanted” out of the store and not brave enough to ask for the key because the line was brushing up against the door. However, my bus stop at one point was lined with people who couldn’t just run home because of either a lack of time or a lack of means to get there. Overall, my week without a car was eye-opening, but not too over board; just enough to realize a little tiny corner of what Catholic Charities’ clients experience. Would I do it again? Absolutely! Maybe for even longer this time. In many ways, the experience has challenged me to find a way to put a challenge like this into my life at least once a week, Sunday for example – I biked to St. Edward’s to meet Monica, one of our JVC support people, so we could watch the Rangers game together.  

The SHC table at the college fair.

I ended my seven-day adventure with driving to St. Michael’s Catholic Academy, which is hidden in the hills of West Austin. Over looking valleys of rock and beauty, this school was home to the private school portion of the Hills of Austin College Fairs. That’s right, one night, for about three and half hours I was able to represent Spring Hill College for high school students across Austin. I had so much fun. It was an interesting switch at the end of a week where I looked at people that for whom, in most cases, the bus was  the best means of transportation for them; to that evening looking at group of individuals whose job it is to travel the country representing their colleges. In some cases, this was the third fair of the day; for others it was their first. Either way, the experience lead me to be even more interested in becoming a college counselor, but one that bikes to work.