Desperate back...

" Hope is... "

It's the start of school holidays, but not for me or any other UTP students. However, on Friday the 15th, i took an initiative to head back to KL all by myself- without booking a bus ticket home too. And that was one great adventure.

My last session ended at 12 but i had some things to do right after that. And so, i left my uni at about 1.35pm. I managed to board a direct bus from my uni to Medan Gopeng, the bus terminal. In the bus, i noticed many other students, not from UTP, who were also prepared to go back home. Compared to the previous time, this time, the number of students were exceptionally larger, and they were mostly from UiTM. I reached my destination on time and excitedly went in to buy my tickets. I panicked after doing so.

There were many other students, largely from UiTM, that booked their bus tickets for home and all the bus tickets back to KL were sold out- the bus ticket i was supposed to get, without booking. I headed to counters after counters requesting for any available seats but their reply was a simple 'sudah habis' (sold out). I looked in despair and in desperation, as if the only word in my dictionary was hope. I told myself that i was 'stranded' there. Questions kept on popping through my tired mind as i waited for some miracle to happen. I thought, how am i suppose to get back to my uni since i'm already here? Or simply, what should i do? I hoped.

I asked the Konsortium and Transnational staff if there was to be any last minute cancellation. They said it's not really possible but informed me to wait patiently until 3.30pm and if there was any, they would call me and sell me the ticket. I paced the floor even more impatiently as the time progressed. I continued moving to other counters and i found there was one bus to Shah Alam at 5.30pm- it was late and so i began to lose hope! Nowhere to go to, i waited in front of the Konsortium counter and prayed for some miracle to occur. I wanted to go back home.

3.15pm, and i kept looking at my watch and saw the number of people with booked seats coming to redeem their actual bus tickets. Calmly but impatiently, i waited. My desperation ended not long after that as the staff called me over and said there was an empty seat. I instantly bought the ticket and smiled in relief and thanked him. Miracle, as it happened, i even got the 3.30pm bus and quickly boarded the bus. I was grinning from ear to ear as the bus reversed, moved to second then third gear and rolled back to KL. Within my relief, i pitied others who, like me, wanted to go back home but couldn't because of the sold out bus tickets. Some came with families, hoping to go back but couldn't fulfil their desire as there was no bus even to other places like Penang and Johor. Therefore, I'm grateful to have waited and luck, i would say, was on my side that day.

I reached Puduraya at 7.30pm due to an extra delay caused by the traffic in the city. Only after reaching KL i realised the cause of my 'desperate' day- it was holiday for the UiTM students as well. If only i had known this fact, i wouldn't have taken the risk of going to the station without booking beforehand.

Didn't i tell you that it was a great adventure? Put yourself in my shoes and just imagine if you weren't lucky that day, what would you do? Remember, you really wanted to go back home! Why- as that will be in my next post!

wc08 is glad.