bus tales: the end

Well, I'm no longer driving buses. At the moment, I'm choosing to see this as a positive career move. My stomach is enjoying its reunion with two-minute noodles, and I'm learning to treat take-away food as a last resort rather than a staple, but it's all for the sake of being a well-educated young man. I've had a week and a half away from the job now, and I've been thinking of the ways the job benefited me and of the things I've learned during the year. I thought I might share some of these.

This job taught me that I'm capable of more than I thought I was. A bit of determination and stickability can, apparently, lead to a strengthening of resolve in the face of a challenge, which in turn can lead to facing larger challenges with some kind of courage. Or some such. Basically, I almost quit on my third day at the depot, but I didn't, and I'm kinda glad. God gave me strength when I asked for it on those early early mornings, and He also gave me the courage to use it.

I guess it was also kind of fun. Driving a huge blue and white people cart can be enjoyable, and it's really not as hard as it looks. You get a whole new view of the road. Sometimes that's fun, and sometimes it's frustrating. There were more than a few moments when I found myself thinking "I am a leaf on the wind..." (just to disturb the Firefly fans), and that was a bit of a hoot.

I also got a different view of people, both passengers and other drivers. Some people are just plain rude without apparent cause, and I guess that's just prejudice. Passengers sometimes assume bus drivers are rude and ignorant, or that conversing with them in any way is beneath them. Bus drivers sometimes assume passengers are rude and ignorant, or that conversing with them in any way is beneath them. It's all just stupid really. We're all people, and all doing jobs so we can eat. Whether you want to be a bastard about it is up to you, but I can testify that it's much easier for both parties if you're nice. I think the best thing about this job was the regular passengers I had, who knew me and knew I was a nice guy and a good driver. They were nice to me back, and I think we brightened up each others' days. I was ashamed of my profession when other bus drivers were bastards to passengers, and I'm still extremely critical of bus drivers in general really. On one level, when your job is to sit in traffic jams and carry around a bunch of ingrates you'd expect to have a short fuse, but that's no excuse for being a rude old bastard. "Sad little king of his sad little hill..."

I don't think my faith stood up to the challenge of a high workload as well as I'd have liked. I'm going to have to be extremely careful with that in the coming years, and learn to prioritise better and trust what's trustworthy and not cut corners. The world is full of distractions, and I am a very distractable person.

All told, it's been one of the most informative years of my life. It feels weird for it to be over, and I have to admit that I miss some of the perks (particularly my employee travel pass... that was probably the most valuable thing in my possession). Still, onward and upward! This too will be an interesting year. Stay tuned.