I grew up in Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales and went to university in Bathurst.
I was 19 and heading back to uni at the end of the midyear break when I fell asleep on the Sydney-bound train, waking up just after the station where I was supposed to switch to a bus. I was an inexperienced traveller, so I asked the onboard staff what to do. “Stay on until Central and we’ll sort out your train to Bathurst from there,” I was told. I resisted the temptation to get off at the next station and call my family for a pickup. I told myself it was my mistake and I needed to figure it out.