Disabled Chronicles, No.32:
I understand why I seem like a delicate flower when you look at me.
I understand how I look to you.
How my lack of mobility causes concern.
How my arms and hands and fingers don’t move enough to convince you that I can do much of anything or that I ever have.
Or maybe that I ever will…
If I could look at Me through your eyes, I’d probably think the same things too…
In order to subvert the fuckery that has been the transportation routing me to get home 2.5, 3, even 4 hours after I get off of school, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make it home on my own time.
All the way from 112th Ave and SW 8th St. to the North Miami Beach area where I live. That’s 24 miles alone.
Thankfully the school has an inter-campus coach bus shuttle between the South campus (where the law school is) and the North campus (that’s literally 20min from where I live) that is free for me as a student to ride. And so I did.
The first day (Tuesday) I braved the voyage and arrived home damn near 8pm. I had started the sojourn at about 5:30pm from down south, after being disgusted with the transportations’ lackadaisical “… 15 more minutes… 20 more minutes…” treatment of me.
I didn’t beat their time by much but I made it home on my own.
The second day (Wednesday), I tried to catch the 4pm shuttle – I didn’t even try to wait for them to pick me up. But the first shuttle driver couldn’t be bothered to set up the wheelchair section and passed it off to the next shuttle, who didn’t have a lift, who then passed it off to the shuttle that finally picked me up only after I called the very nice woman who called to apologize to me for the first days’ shenanigans and vented to her my current frustrations. She came out to see me off personally. I arrived home earlier than their routing predictions but still quiet late.
Then there was today, where I had made my mind up from last night that, since I get out of school early, I will book it to the shuttle and be off campus by 2:30pm because I had errands to run and things to do and places to be, which didn’t include riding around in the van for three hours in order to maybe get home by 5:30pm.
And so I made it to the shuttle, talked the driver through how to operate his own lift 😳 and by 2:30p, we were in motion. By 2:40p, we were on the turnpike headed north. I arrived in my area around 3:30p only to take a short ride to the main North-South road, Biscayne Blvd, then take a longer ride slightly south to the nearest Whole Foods to take my Amazon returns (that I had carried with me when I left home this morning). Then to take another bus back in the direction of where I live.
Once dropped off at the bus hub in my area, I rode my chair to the grocery store, bought a few things, stopped off at Chipotle for my free entree then huffed it home.
I traveled well over 34 miles today. It took me 5 hours. It was raining on and off throughout the whole way. I got sprinkled on only once when I got near my place.
I paced myself. I took my time. I did not take any unnecessary risks. I made it home safely.
Should I be protected?! Yes. I’m not made totally of steel.
But delicate flower?
Mm. Not today…