Today I witnessed something that truly made me reflect as a person. Throughout the last few years many things have changed in my life, including my beliefs. I now feel a strong longing to know "why" and "how" whereas previously in my life I've just sort of accepted things for what they are. And after thinking long and hard about whether the phrase "put good in, get good out" is actually valid, today I realized that, that isn't actually a sound statement. Sure, there are ideas of Karma, the good old "what goes around comes around" but those are just ideas and beliefs. The truth is, is that you don't always get what you put out, be that positive or negative energy. Its that we all are effected by each other, very single "cause" has "effect", an emotion behind it that has been somehow altered, influenced by someone else and their actions, its cyclic. So I share my experience with you in hopes that you too can understand.
This afternoon as I got on the city bus with a friend of mine to head home after a seemingly endless, routine day of high school a younger boy, probably a few grades lower than us tried to get on the bus. . The problem with this was, was that he didn't have his ID which serves as a bus pass for students who attend my school. It was freezing outside, one of the coldest days so far this winter and the snow was coming down. The boy was wearing a pair of running sneakers, jeans, and a t shirt. No joke... a t-shirt. He stood there apologizing and rubbing his arms in desperation for warmth, begging the bus driver to let him on, But bus driver wouldn't let him on as he yelled at him in a viscous tone telling him that " He didn't care how he got him" because " he wasn't his problem"...this struck something in me. We've had this bus driver for a while, he's always mad about something, the kind of guy that never "lets one slide". I sat there so angry at this man for not showing even the slightest bit of human decency. I mean he was a bus driver for Christ sake. My friend quickly pulled out her wallet and handed the boy a dollar so that he wouldn't have to trek home in the freezing cold without a coat, the proper shoes, or even cloves. For the remainder of the drive home my friend and I sat there enraged at the driver. When it came time for me to get off I pulled the stopping cord on the bus and he pulled to the next stop. When I stood up I felt as if the angry had just poured off of me like water cascading down a waterfall and I said thank you to him. Whereas ten minutes ago I probably wouldn't have said anything or even been rude. But what I realized is that if I was rude to the driver after he was rude to the boy, what would make me different from him? Nothing would've made us different because chances are not many people have been nice to him in his life time and maybe that's why he carries so much hate around with him.
- Grace
