Written by: Helen Duaka

I take the Roo from the Student Union to Polsky every Tuesday and Thursday. I have for a couple of years. I know that you take the Southwest Roo down to Polsky and the Northwest Roo up to the Student Union. If I ever find myself on the South or West Roo, each stop is a surprise to me.

Even though I’ve been riding the Roo for years, on most days it still feels like the first time. The feeling I’m describing is not like when you kiss your significant other and it “feels like the first time.”

The Southwest and Northwest Roos hit all the same stops, but they go in the opposite order. So if I really needed to, I could take the Northwest Roo down to Polsky; it would just take longer.

The Roos are generally always on time. But when I’m standing there, waiting for the right one to roll up, I get really paranoid. Here are the thoughts that run through my head:

“Should be here any minute!”

“It feels like it’s been a long time, but I’ve only been waiting like two minutes…”

“Oh wait, here it comes! No, that’s just the South Roo.”

“I’m going to scream if this Roo is out of service.”

“I swear to God, if all these people get on the Roo before me and I don’t get a seat… I’ve been waiting here way longer than them.”

“I could be in class already if I would have just walked. I need to stop being so lazy.”

“Well, the Southwest Roo is better than no Roo at all, I guess.”

So I get on the Roo that will get me there, even if it takes longer. And as if the universe is laughing at me, or just slapping me in the face, the other Roo pulls up right behind the one I’m already seated in.

What does this say about my character, this internal monologue I have with myself every time I wait for the Roo? Is it that I’m just impatient? Maybe it’s that I’ll settle for the next best thing, instead of waiting for what I really want.

Do you settle for what you can get, or wait for what you really want, even if it might never come?

-Anxiously Awaiting,
Girl About Campus