Drive a bus they say, it’ll be fun and easy they say. They weren’t completely wrong it can be fun and it can be easy but what about the hard and rough days? The days that those who have never driven a bus a day in their lives know nothing about. Those are the days that need to be thrown up there before anyone suggest being a bus driver. Let me tell you about my personal experience of being a city bus driver for close to 25 years. First we have what they and I would call a good day what everyone that has never driven a bus sums every single day up like. These are the days where the sun is shining , people are friendly and every single thing goes right. The bus runs perfectly, everybody has on their perfect smiles and great attitudes and every bus stop is hit right on time. These are the days when I love to sit up in my tiny little chair and watch people as they board I wonder where they’re coming from and where they’re going. I wonder if the mom with the sleeping baby in the stroller just came from the park or is she going to a doctors appointment or am I completely wrong and it’s not even her baby but she’s the nanny instead? Then I see the quiet man with the stubble that looks like he hasn’t shaved in a few days and it makes me want to ask him how his days going and what his story is? Is he a recovering alcoholic on his way to an AA meeting to help himself be a better person or has he just had the worst week of his life because his wife left him or is there some other reason I’ll never know? Then we pass by the flower shops with the roses and lilies nestled amongst a host of other flowers outside in stands waiting on people to come pick the most beautiful bouquet and it brings me back to the now and the bustles of different people passing by some in a hurry and some slowly walking by holding hands with their partners stopping to to take in the beauty and smell what I can only assume from looking out my little square bus windows is pure sweet bliss. Then we have the bad days the days that no one sees or thinks about. Sure if you’re on the bus during a bad day even for a minute you might think to yourself I bet that bus driver is having a ruff go at it today. They would be write of course but once they get off the bus I’m just an after thought they go about the rest of their day and no other thoughts about that bus driver goes through their minds. For me though I live these days more often than I care to remind myself. The days where you wake up to grey skies and the smell of rain in the air. The days where you know the earth needs it but you pray that the rain can hold off until after your shift is over. Unfortunately though that’s not how the weather or life works. If it was the world would never see rain, everyone has a different reason for needing it or not needing it. But the phrase when it rains it pours has never been truer for a bus driver. People don’t like having to stand in the rain waiting for a bus I wouldn’t either if im being truthful. This causes the potential riders to become impatient and when they get on the bus they can be and usually are snippy with me and others on the bus. Then there are those who try to go somewhere without the proper bus fare and I have to tell them I can’t let them on. It breaks my heart but if I don’t do it could cost me my job. The biggest con to being a bus driver is the bully’s. The passengers who think they are the bosses, the bus gods if you will. They make fun of people, try and cause fights which I’ve seen more than my fair share of fights caused this way over the years. When this happens I have to pull over and break up the arguments, the fights if it escalates to that point. That puts the bus behind schedule which then puts everyone elses day both on the bus currently and those that haven’t even began their journey behind. You see people mean well but when they say drive a bus it’ll be fun, drive a bus it’ll be easy. Always do your own research before thinking those two things are always going to be true. The world will always need bus drivers that’s true but drivers have to know what their getting into because only the strong can handle actually being a bus driver.