Around my first year of university, I noticed that people would go out of their way to avoid sitting next to me on the bus. Only once every other seat on the bus, including the few that face backwards that everyone hates, were filled would I be graced with human company. At first, this was great. I’m not much of a morning person so this afforded me the luxury of stretching out a bit more and getting some sleep on the way in.
After a while, though, it makes I got curious as to why people were avoiding me. Maybe I looked deranged (no jokes, please, we’re all above that), maybe I smelled (again… grow up), maybe it was something else. What had changed since I went to university? It didn’t take long to figure out that I now had long hair when previously I did not.
A few years later, I cut my hair right down and, sure enough, I seemed to be treated like everyone else on the bus. Maybe I’m not the first person people sit next to, that honour usually goes to someone prettier and more female than myself, crazy as that may sound, but I’m usually not the last either. Hooray.
Recently, however, I’ve noticed that it’s happening again and I don’t have long hhair as an excuse. In fact, it’s worse: they’ve started standing instead of sitting down. That’s quite worrying.
I figured out exactly what the problem is though by watching when it happens. It only happens when I’m watching an episode of Family Guy or listening to the Ricky Gervais podcast. Aha! The seemingly random laughter and, on one occassion, crying (from said laughter) of a stranger makes them not want to sit down: they think I am a lunatic, when in fact I am just well entertained. Not that there’s much difference.
Take from that what you will, maybe the same is happening to you, maybe you just want the seat next to you to be empty in the morning. Now you know how.