Riding the bus

It is back-to-school season — a very exciting time of the year for most students and all parents. This school year marked a first in our house: our oldest, Allison, started kindergarten.

Allison loves school and proudly tells everyone she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She has been asking for months, “When is school going to start?” The big day finally arrived.

We had gone back-to-school shopping weeks ago and attended the school’s open house to find the classroom, her designated seat in the room, and meet the teacher. These were all very exciting things.

Another exciting new experience Allison has been asking about is riding the bus. She attended pre-school last year but was too young to ride the bus.

We signed her up to ride the bus at her request and to save me time and gas running her into town. Since this was our first year, we did not know what her route would look like, what bus to ride, or what time she would get picked up and dropped off. After being instructed to call the bus garage to get that information, I felt much more at ease.

The big day came and went, and Allison said she talked with another young girl on the bus. She said it was great and did not fall asleep, which was a concern of mine because she typically falls asleep on long car rides. Her bus ride is about 40 minutes, so it was long enough that she might. I think she was just so excited and talking with other kids that she did not fall asleep.

I never thought much about riding the bus, as I rode the bus from kindergarten through my senior year, and it was a 60-minute ride in the morning and in the afternoon. Yep, we were the first ones on and the last ones off. It was just the bus; that’s how it was. In high school, once we started driving, we were only allowed to drive if we had an event, meeting or game. I was lucky and had two really good friends that rode my bus, so I didn’t mind.

I remember in elementary school the bus was packed with at least two kids per seat. By the time I got to high school, I pretty much always got my own seat. The combination of kids in my area switching schools, moving away and driving themselves made the ride more roomy.

My grandpa was a bus driver for our district too. He started driving after moving off the farm and into town. While I was in middle school, I rode his bus every day going to the high school where I would get on the bus that took me home.

In today’s day and age, when other parents asked, and I said Allison was riding the bus, they were surprised. Many parents said they drive their kids every day to save them the pain of riding the bus for 45-60 minutes. Granted, we only live about eight miles from school, and growing up, we were more than 20 miles from school.  Maybe it was just me as a naïve child, but it seemed like everyone rode the bus.

Times have changed, but I am thankful that riding the bus is still an option. I made many memories laughing and talking with my friends, getting stuck in the ditch and driving down bumpy gravel roads on the bus, and I hope Allison does too.