Carless

I just dropped my car off to get the bumper repaired, and I will now be without a car until Monday. This will be an interesting experience. In Provo three years ago it would have been relatively easy to get by without a car for four or five days. Campus, church, and a grocery store were all only a few minutes' walk from my house, or less. Most of my friends lived within a few blocks of me, and even my brother who lived on the other end of campus was within walking distance.

Here, however, there are very few places I don't drive to. I am about five miles from central campus and the institute building. Church is a half hour drive. The grocery store is a mile away, which is walkable but time-consuming. Only a few of the people I know live within walking distance, and none of them are the friends I usually spend time with. So for the next few days I am tied to public transportation and willing friends with cars. I have given many, many rides to people without cars since I moved out here, and now I get to experience being one of them.

I'm not too worried, though. Awhile back in Relief Society we were supposed to go around saying one reason we were grateful for the church, or something like that, and someone said, "I'm grateful for the church because I know I will always have a ride to the airport." There really is some truth to this. The church can be a wonderful social connector, and I don't mean that in terms of connecting friends, but rather in terms of providing social support. For the last couple years, every time I go out of town I find a ride to the airport but not from, because I know that if I make a few phone calls after I get to my destination, I will be able to find someone who is available and willing to pick me up when I return. And I'm similarly relaxed about my transportation needs this weekend. I can take the bus to campus to study (it will probably be good for me to use public transportation again anyway), and I can make a few phone calls for everything else.

In fact, part of me is sort of looking forward to not having a car. I want to say it's liberating, but that's not quite accurate. In fact, it's a bit constraining. But I like the fact that for a few days I won't be spending gas money or dealing with traffic, and my own decision-making becomes slightly easier because I am limited in where I can go and how I can get there. It may take some creativity on my part in a few cases, but overall fewer choices makes things less complicated. Oddly enough, I think I will miss my car less when I don't have it than I did when I had a rental car as a replacement.

Oh, and I am no longer on strike. The University and the union settled on Tuesday night and the two-day work stoppage ended after just one day. Sadly, this meant I was not affected by the work stoppage at all since the three hours of class I was going to miss while I was striking were on Wednesday. Oh well. If (heaven forbid!) I am still around in three years, maybe I'll get another chance.