I got behind a yellow school bus on my way to work last week. It made me late. But... how lucky I was. Seriously.
I had to wait (kind of a long time) at three stops before pulling ahead of it toward downtown. That wait left me smiling and made my whole day. That wait brought me joy in a most unlikely place.
It must have been the first day of kindergarten. The kids were so small, I couldn't imagine they were more than three, but they must have been five. I guess I'd forgotten how small they were as they started elementary school, their little heads barely high enough to see out the windows. Their backpacks stretched down three-quarters of their bodies to the backs of their knees.
There were just one or two children at each stop, but they were each surrounded by an entourage -- Mom's with cameras, Dad's with video cameras, grandmothers carrying wild younger siblings flailing in their arms trying to get down and possibly join older brother or sister on the big yellow bus. There were smiles on all the adults and some of the kids. One little girl jumped up and down as she saw the bus approach. One little blond boy looked like he'd just seen a ghost - all serious and focused on this new task at hand. One Mom began running beside the bus, kiddingly, as it rolled down the neighborhood street, waving to her little girl all the way. One Mom ran out into the middle of the road and took a photo of the back of the bus as it rolled slowly away. She will always remember it taking her little boy off to bigger and better things, beginning the next leg of his journey -- new friends, new subjects, new school.
