Do I Love To Drive?

When it comes to commuting, I've been very lucky.

Or blessed, or fortunate, or lucky.

You see, for almost my entire career with my current employer I've been able to take public transportation to work. And for almost all of those years, work has paid for my bus/rail pass. I can't imagine how much money we've saved after all those years.

But this week and part of last week, I had to drive to work because of training, and training was held in offices at the other end of the valley.

Needless to say, I've driven a lot this week.

And I haven't really enjoyed it.

I remember back when I was going to school at the U of U I had to drive everywhere. Sure there were buses back then, but they were not a viable alternative to driving, especially since I had either one or two jobs in addition to my studies. There was no way I could take public transportation.

Back then, I was such a rash driver, impatient, rude, aggressive. I hated to be stuck in traffic--hated it! It used to bug me so much when northbound traffic during rush hour would slow down a mile after the I-215 traffic merged with the northbound I-15 traffic. There was no reason for this slow-down other than it's what we did every single day. We were trained to do it. 

But a lot has happened in the over two decades since I was an undergrad. Getting older and hopefully, more mature has helped changed the way I drive. And, of course, taking the bus and having someone else deal with all those other drivers has helped, too.

Next week I'm back on the bus/train. Sure it's better for the environment, but best of all, it's better for me. It's not that I don't like to drive, just not back and forth to work. Now, driving on a family vacation...that's another story.