Bus Stop Happenings

Bus Stop Happenings

When I got off work yesterday I was walking to the bus stop and as I got nearer I noticed two people arguing inside. It was so bad that I decided to stay out of the covered area. The argument was rather silly, and the content of it does not really matter, but one thing I do want to focus on was how it affected everyone around them.

Bus stops are not the greatest places in the world to start talking to people, but their was a huge amount of disgust from passersby as the woman was yelling at the man that he would not be able to understand her because he would not listen to her, and the man replied with the same remark and that he did not want to understand her.

A woman came and sat down next to me and we had a pleasant conversation and didn’t pay much attention to the argument after that. She was very pleasant and the threatened feeling that was emanating from the bus stop seemed inferior to her kindness. It really impressed upon me how much we affect everyone around us.

Our bus arrived a few minutes late and the driver is a nice old man whom I’ve known for a while since I’m a regular. He apologized about being late and told me about a woman who got pretty upset with him for being late. I’m not very nice about the bus system in general and luckily only rely on it to get home since I try to walk to work in the morning, or I’m so late I have Ryan take me or my dad pick me up, but this woman’s reaction was very angry and the driver felt bad that he was not on time, but realized that it is impossible to be at every stop at the coordinated time.

He felt bad, but could not do anything to have gotten there quicker, and accepted the woman’s blame on him. It was sad, and I thought about my job, how I’m the “greeter” for the building, and what all that really entails. If someone has a bad experience with me, odds are they will have a bad experience with whomever they came to see.

An odd sort of empowering moment, but those are always welcomed and make me feel a little bit more important, and who doesn't like to feel needed or wanted?