Have you ever taken the bus in Jacksonville, maybe to get to the movies or pick up a few groceries? What about a cab, other than those good calls coming home from your favorite beachy hangout? And please, someone tell me if you’ve taken that sky cab thing any other time than when the Super Bowl came to town. Public transportation in Jacksonville leaves much to be desired. Maybe it’s just too hard for the public transportation gods to wrap their arms around our big city with our many boroughs. So we all mostly keep to our own private modes of transit, no matter how high gas gets.

One of my first memories of public transportation that clearly stands out in my mind was the Walt Disney World monorail. The ride was like the walk down the hallway on Christmas morning, a journey of such anticipation. I couldn’t wait to finally catch a glimpse of Cinderella’s castle—the epitome of a wonderland. Aw, what a happy memory of conveyance.

It isn’t always about the destination though, as we all know from that popular saying. It is about the journey. I am reminded of my trip to Japan several summers ago. One never truly thinks of how lucky we are to be able to scan a paper and understand what the characters are and what they mean or to walk down a street and read all the signs. You can take it for granted, until you’re in a situation like we were. Language barrier or not, we needed to get to our many destinations. We worked as one team to put the puzzle pieces together. This character meant this direction. This other one meant this subway line. And through the confusing translation, the snack machines of unidentifiable goodies and that strange encounter with a Yakuza member whilst reading our maps, we made it to every destination. At the end of that trip we weren’t just a bunch of college kids in a foreign country, we were adventurers who had stood up to our challenge. It was a learning and growing experience we’d always share.

Traveling in a group certainly brings the people together in the most interesting of ways. Just think about that movie Speed. If that bus hadn’t been rigged with a bomb that would explode if that hunk of public transportation went below 50 mpg, then how would Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock get together? What about the ending of The Wedding Singer with the classic love ballad performed at 30,000 feet by Adam Sandler to Drew Barrymore? No, it just wouldn’t have been the same in a Mazda.

Just recently a trip to Atlanta and a poorly labeled Marta train led to some travel confusion on my group’s way to the airport. I couldn’t fully compare this train to my Disney monorail experience since it came to a point where we weren’t sure what our destination was. We weren’t alone. A group of boys across from us were confused on their stop as well. Before we fully realized we were actually lost too, we tried to help the boys map out the rest of their trip. And it wasn’t until a young man, sitting in our vicinity listening to his mp3, caught notice of our troubles and lent a helping hand…or compass I suppose. He directed the boys then helped us get back on track. The power of the people around you will surprise you sometimes.

So even if public transportation doesn’t sound like something you’ll use on a regular basis, I’d give it a try. Sometimes you might not know where you’re getting off, but you’ll never know quite who you’ll meet or how that person will change your journey. Happy travels.