Bus Driver Appreciation Week

This week is bus driver appreciation week. I had no idea there was a whole week set aside to give us snacks! The middle school gave us goodie bags filled with crackers, cookies, and mints on Monday. The high school refreshed us with popcicles on Wedesday, and the district has provided an afternoon drink and snack every day. What fun!

So you can appreciate your local bus driver, here's a sneak peak into our lives behind the wheel.

* I drive smelly, sweaty boys who haven't discovered deoderant yet and girls who can't stop spraying body splash, until the entire bus smells perfectly peachy.

* The boys like to ask for my phone number and the girls like to ask questions about Danny (when they find out I'm married) - mainly, "Is he cute?"

* I drive over 60 miles, cross five railroad tracks, stop at three schools, turn around four times, and carry over 70 kids home - just in one afternoon.

* If I leave the bus yard at 2:03 p.m. I can get to the school in time to read for 10 minutes before the first, non-stop-talking middle school kid gets on the bus.

* I know what time I should get to my first stop, what time I should drop off Amberly, and what time the last middle school kids gets off my bus. One minute late and I'm behind schedule.

* I drive black, white, and Hispanic kids, and one lone Asian girl.

* I've discovered that kids' memories reset every morning when their eyes pop open to greet the day. Every afternoon I yell, "Sit down! Stop yelling! Get your head inside the bus! Stop hitting! Take off your headphones! Put away your cell phones! No foods! Stop throwing that! Pick it up! Stop screaming! Turn around! Get off the floor! Don't touch her!" at least 45 million times.

* I can hit 50 mph going down a VERY LONG hill and pray to maintain 35 mph with the pedal to the metal going up hill.

* I hear about the hottest crushes, the newest fights, the unplanned pregnancies, and how Mom's going to sell the computer because of the failing grades.

* One-third of my kids live in a double-wide on the corner of an overgrown lot that's been there so long the cement blocks have sunk deep into the earth and been overtaken by clingy weeds. One-third of my kids live in mansions on richly landscaped acreage where they keep their numerous cell phones, xboxes, p2s, and ipods. And, one-third of my kids live in modest, vinyl-siding houses where they probably share a room with their youngest sibling.

And, finally, to best describe the kids that ride my bus, let me give you a Cliff Notes lesson in current youth culture.

If you were a fly buzzing around my bus you would realize that World War Craft and VH1 have shaped kids' minds today more than anything else and that they spend more time infront of the computer and tv than with their families or playing outside.

Yesterday the activity on my bus was a messed up version of the tv show, Yo Mama. The student who could throw the most insults without cracking a smile won.

Romans 1:28 - 30:

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Not familiar with "Yo Mama?" Here's a snippet to whet your appetite and make you cry over what is influencing today's youth.

"The no-holds-barred trash talking competition has never been fiercer as the competitors have the pride of their 'hood, their borough, and all of Gotham on their back as they're runnin' the dozens to gut-bustin' glory. The competition breaks down each weekday with freestyle on the streets of one of New Yorks storied boroughs. " (MTV Website, Yo Mama TV Series)

It got so out of hand that I finally offered a stick of gum to the student who could throw out the most compliments before he/she got off the bus. You would be amazed at the things kids will do for a piece of bubble gum. Ever since then I hear, "You look so nice today Miss Laura," as kids get on the bus. All is not lost.