Adulthood Slaps Recent Graduate In The Face As Faithful Concession Travel Card Finally Expires

SANDY FRASER | Youth | CONTACT

Maya Renton (22) knew this day would arrive soon enough. 

Still, there’s no way she could’ve prepared for the events of this morning.

Upon boarding the 886 bus to work, Maya discovered her MyGoBetootpal concession card had finally expired - 6 months after she walked free from university. 

“I had my graduation ceremony last week, but it was hard to enjoy it, really. I couldn’t focus. Everyone kept asking me what was wrong and saying how this was meant to be the best day of my life,”

“But all I could think about was how sometime in the next month or so they’d probably be cancelling the card on me,”  

“And then even then, I think in my head, maybe, I did have this glimmer of hope that they wouldn’t cancel it, that they’d just renew it for another year or something accidentally, but yeah. I guess not,” she said, choking back tears. 

The concession benefits awarded to current students include half price fares and a reduced weekly cap of $20, while standard travel cards are capped at $50. 

Considering Maya commutes into the CBD daily, and hasn’t quite yet got her hours up to move off her L’s, it’ll be quite the jump in weekly spending. 

“$30 a week is my lunch two days a week, hrggghhhhh,” she said. 

“I’m going to have to start eating out of a sad tupperware container in the work kitchen. This is legit getting worse by the second.”

“The only thing bringing me any comfort right now is the fact that my student card doesn’t have an expiry date, so I should still be able to get into the movies and stuff for cheap for another year or so, at least,”

“But still, this is fucked.”

Maya placed her AirPods comfortably back into her ears, leant against the bus window, and queued Passenger’s ‘Let Her Go’ for the remaining duration of the ride. 

More to come.