requiem for bus drivers
I was waiting for the bus today, on my way home from campus and I had this horrible, incredibly sad, rude awakening about bus drivers.
There was a bus parked behind the bus station and this particular driver was taking a break because II noticed he was parked for at least 10 minutes. At closer glance, I realized that the driver was eating a sandwich and drinking his coffee, sitting in the driver’s seat in an empty bus. Maybe I’m not describing this properly but it was so sadto see. The bus doors were closed and he was alone, just staring out on to the road, eating this plain sandwich asdfghjkl my heart plummeted tbqh.
Man, driving a bus must be the loneliest and generally thankless job in the world. As much as I am polite and say thank you to the bus driver when I get off, I rarely see other passengers do that. I don’t even know what the ratio is; maybe for every 10 passengers, 3 bother to say thank you? Maybe it’s the town I live in, or it depends on the age range but I feel like more people need to take bus drivers into consideration.
At least we, as passengers, have our books to read, games to play, music to listen to but the bus drivers are doing just that; DRIVING. Not speaking to anyone, barely any interaction. It’s gotten to the point where if the bus driver ever makes an announcement over the intercom, it’s super jarring to hear their voice. I’m not saying that no one ever talks to bus drivers, I’m sure there are several people who stand next to the driver and talk about random things. I myself have discussed a lot of different topics, like the Toronto Maple Leafs, traffic, what have you. And the nighttime drivers must have it even worse. It’s so visually quiet on the road at night, just all black with the occasional streetlights and the bus is relatively empty compared to the daytime.
And when it comes to actually conversing with the driver, the ratio might even be 3 out of 20. These bus drivers see so many people get on and off the bus, but they (and I’m guilty as this too) just get on, walk to the back, grab a seat and listen to their music/read/etc quietly. Considering how many people are on a single bus, it’s really disheartening to realize that we don’t really talk to each other. Actually, no, not even talking. Sometimes I refuse to talk to people on the bus because I’m uncomfortable but that usually happens late at night and the people on the bus are just creeps. But in general, passengers on the bus barely talk to each other, and god forbid our eyes meet. People avert their eyes so quickly nowadays, asdfghjkl it makes me so bummed out lol. There have been times where I’ll be on a bus and see someone reading a book that I love and I’ll just be itching to talk to them about it but they just look so unapproachable. In fact, just yesterday my friend and I were waiting for a bus and this elderly man sat next to us on the bench and started talking to us about how technology has advanced since his day. And he told us about his life and his family (his kids went to our university as well, and they majored in so-and-so but they live out of province now, his wife has Alzheimer’s, and how, he lived in Toronto his whole life, except the three years that he was drafted to the war). And we talked about British Columbia and England and hyper-intellectual people (and I got so excited tbh when I brought up Sherlock Holmes and he was all ‘I loved Sherlock Holmes when I was younger, read all the stories’). It was so great to talk to him because he had such a different outlook on life and such great stories. He talked to us about his experience in the war and how he was part of the communications team and told us how heavy and large their walkie-talkie devices were. He also asked us what we were studying and told us how he was a retired pharmacist and why he disliked Shoppers Drug Mart. I’m not going to lie, it was strange at first when he started talking to us but as we got into it, he was such a fascinating man.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just rambling but this whole bus drivers thing hit me like a ton of bricks and it bummed me out so much. I’m sure having Ed Sheeran’s voice crooning in my ear is making me more retrospective. But I just had to think this out. And yes, let me assure you that I’m fully aware of the irony of me concerning myself over bus drivers while typing this out on the bus and totally neglecting my own driver. I guess I’m part of the problem too.