When I was at BYU, I never had a car. I rode the bus everywhere, the grocery store, my job, sometimes even the short walk up to campus. In fact, I rode it so much that the bus driver learned my name and where and when I stopped. Embarrassing, I know. Now, I had never encouraged said bus driver, never waved goodbye to him, or said "see you later!" and I had certainly not learned HIS name. But, since I am a nice person, I would quietly say "thank you" as I exited the bus every day. Every day, that is, except one.
This day started out like any other, it was freezing out, as it usually is in Utah. I hopped on the bus to go home from work and the bus driver greeted me with a cheery "well if it isn't Kathleen!" I sat down and calmly waited for the 30 minutes ride to be over. As me stop neared, I pulled the stop chord, but the bus driver just kept on driving! The next stop was a block away and it was blizzarding outside! So I pulled it a few more times while saying "excuse me, that was my stop." And then the bus driver did something that changed everything. He snapped at me. He said "i KNOW" with an annoyed tone, and put his hand up as if to shush me. I was shocked. If he KNEW, why didn't he stop? And shouldn't he have stopped simply because he had memorized my schedule? (seriously, he would make remarks like "time for work huh?" when I would get on for work. he had memorized it)
I exited the bus that day, no small smile on my face, no thank-you leaving my lips. I exited the bus that day with a stone cold look of hate on my face and started the extra long walk home.
We were never the same again.
