How to Ride CyRide

An enlightening conversation about the seemingly simple but intimidating topic of public transportation here in The City of Ames. 

By: Matthew Grande

Fig.1. “A student gets on the Iowa State University public transportation bus” prompt, Canva, Magic Media, 26 Feb. 2024.

New incoming freshmen at Iowa State University have access to a vital tool that will greatly help them with their productivity and versatility in getting around The City of Ames. The convenience of public transportation is something that college towns across the United States have to aid the movement of thousands of students and staff to get around their cities. Here is Ames we call that system the CyRide! If you are a new student of Iowa State University, “All you need to do is get your student ID and that will automatically give you access to the services that CyRide offers” because you are a student at the University. 

 “Taking your first ride on a CyRide bus can be intimidating because of the many routes that they can run throughout the city, but having a friend with you greatly helps ease the stress,” Said Sarda. Akshay Sarda has ridden CyRide for the past year or so for community events and to get to and from Iowa State for his classes, thus making him the perfect person to interview to help explain the CyRide system. One priority before ever getting on your first bus is “to get the CyRide app on your phone,” this is because it tells the user when the next bus is going to be coming to the closest stop and you can add a payment method to use when getting on the bus. 

Now starts the daunting task of getting on the bus for the first time by yourself because “having a good sense of where you want to go and where you currently are is key to having a successful journey.” Understanding your surroundings at all times both in and out of the bus makes sure you do not miss your stop. “When your stop is the next one all you need to do is pull the red line that tells the driver to stop.” Akshay is a heavy believer in the ability to meet new and interesting people on a CyRide bus as he has many experiences where “I met some people I still talk to today, and bumped into old friends as well!” Take a chance and introduce yourself to someone new because that may spark a relationship that you never thought could happen. The sense of community that can be built on a Cyride bus is what makes it special.

What Value does Breakfast Add to a Person’s Day?

The added value that breakfast provides to a person’s day is crucial to advancing their attitude in the morning and also giving them the energy to perform to the best of their ability. People should reconsider their position on eating breakfast because it offers many benefits that are often overlooked. After all, there are many misconceptions surrounding this topic. 

In a study from the University of Alabama, it was found that eating breakfast does not have any substantial effects on a person’s weight, rather eating breakfast helps lower an individual’s consumption of food later in the day. This begs the question of what benefits eating breakfast has on a person’s everyday routine, does it enhance their ability to consume information in the morning? This essential question is discussed in Breakfast After the Bell where Peter Wright finds that on average students who consume a nutritious breakfast in the morning find themselves having better academic testing performances and also the ability to be aware during the early moments of their day. Navigating the day with a woken-up mind from a morning meal greatly helps my contentiousness in class and offers many different nutritious benefits that help my everyday diet.

Breakfast has always had a negative stigma around it because it is often seen as overrated or unnecessary. The breakfast subject is indeed heavily overrated, as Dr. Starr discusses while also highlighting its importance: “All of our meals are important; I don’t think breakfast is the most important meal, [But it] kick-starts the process for our body to function properly.” A key to making the most out of breakfast is having a well-balanced meal that contains “the right balance of protein, fiber, and unsaturated fat” which helps aid early morning neurological productivity. In a study from Cambridge University, it was found that people without the consumption of morning fibers and proteins have a poorer diet quality when compared to individuals who do consume breakfast. This is because breakfast skippers tend to consume more unnecessary carbohydrates and sugars during their lunch meals to compensate for their lack of breakfast. 

Finding a rhythm in the morning for every person is key to waking up and getting on with their day, as many traditions in terms of their morning routine are very important to how their day will go. Being able to have a new perspective towards eating Breakfast in the morning is crucial to best understanding what your body needs for itself to be able to perform at its very best. 

Work Cited

Galioto, Rachel, and Mary Beth Spitznagel. “The Effects of Breakfast and Breakfast Composition on Cognition in Adults.” PubMed Central (PMC), American Society for Nutrition, 1 May 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4863263/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.

“Skipping Breakfast Is Associated with Nutrient Gaps and Poorer Diet Quality among Adults in the United States | Proceedings of the Nutrition Society | .” Cambridge Core, www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-nutrition-society/article/skipping-breakfast-is-associated-with-nutrient-gaps-and-poorer-diet-quality-among-adults-in-the-united-states/C7943690D97E913FA19B936BFBDB0F2A. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.

Wright, Peter. “Breakfast After the Bell.” Education Digest, vol. 80, no. 5, Jan. 2015, pp. 27–30. Education Source, research.ebsco.com/c/5cvfut/viewer/pdf/i2iwtrmo7z. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023. 

Reynolds, Gretchen. “Is Breakfast Overrated?” Well, archive.nytimes.com/well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/is-breakfast-overrated/. Accessed 28 Nov. 2023.How to Make a Healthy Breakfast – The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/23/well/eat/healthy-breakfast.html?searchResultPosition=1. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.

Breakfast – PRO Column

The added value that Breakfast provides to a person’s day is crucial to advancing their attitude in the morning and also giving them the energy in the morning to perform to the best of their ability. People should reconsider their position on eating Breakfast because it offers many different benefits that are often overlooked. After all, there are many misconceptions surrounding this topic. In a study from the University of Alabama, it was found that eating Breakfast does not have any substantial effects on a person’s weight, rather eating breakfast helps lower an individual’s consumption of food later in the day. This begs the question of what the benefits of eating breakfast have on a person’s everyday routine, does it enhance their ability to consume information in the morning? This essential question is discussed in Breakfast After the Bell where Peter Wright finds that one average student who consumes a nutritious breakfast in the morning finds themselves having better academic testing performances and also the ability to be conscious during the early moments of their day. Being able to have a new perspective towards eating Breakfast in the morning is crucial to best understanding what your body needs for itself to be able to perform at its very best.

What is High School like in 2023

High School in 2023 creates vast amounts of opportunities for students to discover their passions that will drive them toward careers young students would never expect to achieve. Finding the drive to achieve good grades and relationships in High School can sometimes be difficult because a student’s focus is at a premium as a result of the influence that mobile devices have on their attention A vast majority of students find themselves navigating the pressures that school throws at them every day by attempting to reduce their daily screentime so their focus is all on their academics. Being able to thread the needle between the two extremes is a common practice for most students as the balance between social interaction online and good participation in classes can promote an open-minded perspective of the world. 

The year 2023 provides an opportunity for students to start anew after the COVID-19 pandemic which caused many students to lose their focus as learning was disrupted for months. Many students never got back into the grove of knowledge because they saw education as an unimportant practice. Many students procrastinated because schools initially gave a lot of leeway with late assignments and gave very few tests that would heavily change their grades. Coming out of that dark period in American education, High School in 2023 provides a light for many students to find purpose in the world by diving head first into their passions and the friendships that glue communities together. These bonds and sparks at High School are what make it such a special place for many students to escape their comfort zone and find new people to talk to or even take new classes that seemed unachievable to be successful in. 

The difficulties for students in 2023 High School come hard and fast as many are unprepared for the world outside of High School like the many generations before them. This attribute is not a problem, as it is rather a learning experience where students learn to act for themselves and decide where their future is going to take them. The experiences that High School in 2023 gives to its students set them up for ultimate success only if students see it as something that has helped them. Many today still find school as a nagging string that has no use, but it should rather be seen as a device to connect all the different parts of your personality before they are sent out into the world. To conclude, High School in 2023 shows students what it takes to become the best versions of themselves by stressing their minds in the classroom and creating community throughout the halls of students.