Got on the bus in 2022 and off in 2023

Two hours until a new year, for 2023 to begin and to bid adieu to 2022. 

After an amazing New Year’s Eve dinner, my friends and I chose to return to our residence and relax for a bit before we welcome 2023 with fireworks at the Grand Parade downtown. 

The sky kept drizzling as we waited and refreshed ourselves in our rooms, losing track of time. 

With a single refresh of Google Maps, Halifax Transit route 10 was no longer delayed. We were expecting a delay. 

But it was on time and we weren’t. We missed the bus in our two minutes of confusion. 

The time was somewhere around 20 minutes past 11 p.m. As my friends and I anxiously refreshed Maps, we were relieved to see the next bus stopping at our Sheriff Hall home was in 10 minutes. 

However, in this time warp triggered by Google Maps, we started wondering how quickly the last hour of 2022 was flying by, as opposed to the long year we just endured. As we calculated at the bus stop the probability of whether we’d be able to make it in time to see the fireworks, things seemed to be looking good. 

That was until we realized we forgot to consider the amount of traffic downtown Halifax would attract on New Year’s Eve. After restlessly waiting and anxiously following the bus’s live location on Maps, it pulled up to the stop at last.  

I, my three friends and another group of three were all headed to the Grand Parade in hopes of catching a glimpse of the long-awaited fireworks. A few stops later, a group of 10 to 15 students joined us on the journey to say goodbye to 2022. 

There was one last stop to go. With five minutes to spare in 2022, things were promising. We had almost reached our destination with one stop between us and the fireworks. While we constantly checked our phones, the last minutes of 2022 were quickly slipping by. 

Slowly and unwillingly, we accepted the facts. With the traffic, along with a series of unfortunate events and the fact it takes a human a solid 20 seconds to get on or off a bus, we would not be making it to our destination, the long-awaited Grand Parade, within the bounds of 2022.  

11:59 p.m. and 55 seconds.

The group of students who got on after us were the ones to start the countdown. “Five! Four! Three! Two! One!”

It was official: “Happy New Year!” 

From a distance, we heard the much-anticipated fireworks and caught glimpses of the lights through the bus’s windows.

The year began for us on Halifax Transit route 10, with riders screaming from every corner of the bus.