Get Over Yourself

Commuter busing becomes more popular as workers have to travel further for their jobs, as an effort to save gas, and to help the environment by having less vehicles on the road. I would image each person has their own reason for using commuter transportation. I choose to take a bus for a variety of reasons and I appreciate that this option is available to everyone. On my way in to work today, a call came in over the radio to our driver reporting that some riders had to be left behind at a stop because there just was not enough room. How unfortunate! The compassionate bus driver, knowing he was going to pass by that stop, offered to pick up the remaining passengers. Selfishly, a passenger in the front row of my bus exclaimed, "We can't! That is not on our scheduled route! We are not supposed to waste time stopping there!" I couldn't believe what I heard. The driver merely ignored her distressed complaints, as he rightly should have. The stop was literally on the road we were traveling on and did not take much time at all. The abandoned people were also extremely grateful. However, even if the bus took 10 full minutes out of the way, I would not have minded. It is unfortunate that the lady on the bus could not see past her own "inconvenience" of a few minutes, in order to realize that the people we were picking up were more severly inconvenienced. If we had not stopped, they would have stood there waiting for another 45 minutes!

Sometimes we need to just get over ourselves and see the bigger picture. Then, take joy in the fact that there are kind people, like our bus driver, who don't mind going a little out of their way to help someone out. The lady on the bus used that awful word "can't". Yet, the driver DID stop and everything worked out just fine. So why did she think we couldn't? In this instance, perhaps fear of being late? Who knows. The message: Put yourself in someone elses shoes, get over yourself, and see the bigger picture!

Oh, and of course: Never Say Can't! =)