From 7th-9th grade, I took a bus to school. Each leg was about 40-45 minutes. These rides honed a skill I have not since had to use: how to survive in prison.
Public transportation of 13-15 year olds, in a town that can't support a Red Lobster, is not without value. Without a bus, many of my fellow students would not have advanced past seventh grade.
The reasons for using the bus varied. Some students came from (and would soon start) single-parent homes. Some lived in houses where both parents worked. I rode the bus because my parents felt the commute would build character. "We took the bus; you can take the bus [pussy]." They didn't speak the bracketed word, but it was implied.
Here's what I learned:
1. You do not need to be the toughest person in the room, but if you aren't in the top three, you do need to be friends with the toughest person in the room.
2. Wit, good humor, and the ability to bluff can carry one far in white-collar life. Wit, good humor, and the ability to bluff will get you hit in the face with a history book on a public school bus in a town that can't keep a Red Lobster.
3(a). No one in this country is meaner than a white girl who lives in a home with vertical blinds;
3(b). A close second is anyone named Shane.
On one trip home, a smaller guy on the bus who did not understand any of the above points observed that girls who bowl are "dykes." Crass, insensitive, and highly stupid statement in a town that cannot support a Red Lobster. When one's stepdad maintains the ball-return machine at the bowling alley, one bowls. This has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Rather than explain this, the bowler notified this kid that they would both get off at the next stop, and she would "show you what a dyke is."
4. Bus drivers may not be fully formed adults.
Our driver pulled into the next stop, turned on the flashers, and announced "we're going to sit here and enjoy the show." The show was brief: the girl beat the piss out of the boy. She grabbed him by the shirt, threw him into the side of the bus, then punched him 4-5 times.
On cue, the stop sign retracted, and our driver drove away, chuckling to himself. To him, this was redemption from the day before, when Shane spit on him after being asked not to smoke on the bus.
5. Bus drivers who do not purposefully drive the bus over a cliff or into a lake should receive a Medal of Freedom.