Why I Became a School Bus Driver

Every morning I dropped my son off at the school bus to a driver who was always smiling and greeted us by our names. I mean, contagously happy with a big smile regardless of the day or weather. It could be a blustery blue Monday morning where I'm sure it took her a good 30 minutes to get her bus started, but she'd still show up at our house wishing us a good morning with the sweet happy smile on her half frozen face.

Or she could show up late to our house in the mid August heat with sweat running down her beautiful face and a bus full of screaming kids ready to go home after a long day at school, and she would still be smiling ear to ear as happy as can be as she wished my son and I a great afternoon. I truly admired her, her patience, her ability to make you feel like you truly mattered, and her love for the kids on her school bus full of loud and crazy kids.

One evening after my son was absent from the school bus for a week due to a hospital visit and surgery, we heard a knock on the door. It was our amazing school bus driver who had heard our boy had gone thru surgery and had brought him a few small things to cheer him up. I was so caught off guard with this sweet gesture that all I could say was : "Thank you."

When my son opened up the gift bag he found one of the Rubic Snakes his bus driver would let him play with on the bus, and three handpainted rocks with the words:" You Rock, You Got This, and You Are Strong." I had to leave the room in order not to cry like a baby on front of my newly operated son who was so happy to be playing with the Rubic Snake again. 

You see, this school bus driver had made such a huge impact on both our lives by just showing up with some handpainted rocks and a well used Rubic toy. She made me want to become a better person because she made such a difference in an otherwise painful and scary moment in our life.

From that moment on, the School Bus Driver seed was planted. I wanted to be a difference in someones life just like her, or maybe just be a smile in someone's gray, stormy, or uncertain day. I wanted to be a person just like my son's school bus driver! 

2 months later I applied at a county job fair and 4 months later I was an official county school bus driver. I still to this day work with the mantra of trying to be someones sunshine in an otherwise gray day. This job is the hardest yest the best job I have had to date, and I can only imagine it getting better with every year I drive. ❤️🚍❤️

May my students think I am half as good, funny, and nice as you 143! I have a lot to live up to.