Get off the bus!!!

Do you have any memories that are burned in your brain?  Ones that will rear their ugly head at the strangest of moments?  One of mine is from when I was in the 5th grade going in to the 6th grade.  The bus driver when we were in elementary school was so kind to us.  She knew us by name and would interact with all of us personally.  She gave us little presents and treats and I genuinely enjoyed the ride to school.  Spring of 5th grade year she told us all goodbye for the summer.  Fall of 6th grade year so less than 4 months later I had now started middle school.  I was nervous and worried and fearful.  I stepped on to the bus and it was the same driver.  A sense of relief poured over me until...I said hello and she glared at me.  I tried to speak to her and she yelled at me to get on the bus I was holding everyone up.  She was my bus driver for the rest of the time I rode the bus and she was never kind again.  Always hateful. 


Looking back on it I assume it was we were now middle schoolers and some people don't like middle schoolers or high schoolers.  I guess it could have been something had happened to her over the summer that changed her but my first deduction better suits this blog post so we will go with that...


If you check in to a hotel and have a bad experience do you then assume that ALL hotels must be bad?  If you have eaten hamburgers all your life and loved them but then you have a bad one do you then say I hate all hamburgers?  Of course not!  You would know that this was an isolated case and you have to take each situation into account before you decide.  If you have several bad hamburgers in a row by all means become a vegetarian but again its you...not them. 


Why is it then that we don't give other human beings this same courtesy?  A certain age group.  A certain race. A certain gender. I met a two year old once that was hateful I must hate all small children.  WHO DOES THAT?  Shockingly enough most people! 


Get out of your comfort zone and start gathering more data maybe that two year old was hungry and hadn't had a nap.  Be the bigger person.  Be kind to the eye rolling teen because you too were once an eye rolling teen that knew everything.  I promise on the inside they are still a scared little elementary schooler that just wants someone to be nice to them. 


Get off the bus.  Be kind.