Blog #50

BLOG #50: Oh, The Places You'll Go

 

Wow, 50 blogs. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me. I believe we now have enough Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons to fill a novel; it wouldn’t be a particularly high selling novel, but none-the-less.

This has been a pretty big year for our little blog as we have now reached 50 blogs and a while back here we went over the 5,000 views mark as well. Our goal is to start to get 5,000 per post…but that may be a little ways down the road here, just need to do some more networking or maybe be able to afford one of those awesome robot programs that got Flappy Bird up the charts in the App Store so fast! But, we’ll keep plugging away, drinking our delicious cocktails and trying to remember what we learned about life as we did so, and then we’ll pass it on to our readers!

I’ve taken to bragging about the kids on my bus quite a bit in this blog and this past week I got to do some things that my current position with the school and the kids afforded me to do, and I think I learned quite a bit about where I am in life because of it.

A few weeks back I was visiting with a couple of the teachers from the Elementary school at a local watering hole and one of the teachers mentioned a “Secret Reader” activity that they were doing at the school. Different individuals from the community would come in and any kid that wanted to listen to the “Secret Reader” read could come to the library of the school and listen. I thought it was an awesome idea and I was completely on board with it right away. I try to promote reading and the fact that knowledge is power on my bus all of the time and this would certainly give me an opportunity to practice what I preached.

I originally had planned to read any short story that the kids from my bus had written for me but I had only received one still at this point so I decided to go with a story that’s relevant at any stage of life. Be it when you’re born, in Kindergarten, Graduating High School, College, or just need a pick me up in life…Dr. Seuss’s, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” is a book that we can all relate to and filled with life lessons that no matter where we end up in life, we seem to have to travel through the lessons in this book. As Dr. Seuss had written it just a year before he passed away, he had the experience needed to show us what may be in store for the rest of us.

 

So I had my book and the date I was suppose to read, now the school just needed five clues as to who the “Mystery Reader” was for the kids to try and guess.

Now this may be pretty simple for a lot of people, but for some odd reason my thinking isn’t always on par with everyone else. A lot of people may just sit down, think of five quick things that they’re associated with and send it off to the school, but for me, I found myself asking the question…”Who am I?”

Weird right, how can a simple thing like, “Give me five clues for the kids to guess who’s coming into read” can move to question who I am as an individual? But as I said, I don’t really think I’m wired quite like everyone else, but thankfully none of us are. The fact that this moved me into some philosophical questioning of my existence might be as good of an answer to who I am as anything…but that may be a little deep for the kids filling the seats.

So who am I? What did I give for clues, what could I have given, and what did I learn from the whole experience? Well, let’s break it down for you:

Clue #1

“I am a local small business owner.”

My bus route goes right by our business everyday and I always have the kids look for deer on our grounds or talk about how pretty it is every time we pass, so I was hoping they might pick up on this clue, but that business has certainly played a giant part in my life and although our parents started the business, it has certainly become one of the things that has shaped me into the person I have become. Be it the ability to communicate with people of all ages, a certain business savvy (however slight), or an ability to be a problem solver I think I can attribute to my time with this business as a real teacher for me. It also gives me something to be proud of and the fact that my parents grew something that people thought would fail into one of the biggest attractions in our area makes me pretty proud of them too. It taught me that not everyone will always be on your side, but as long as you believe in what you’re doing and your own ability, you can move mountains (which is a great life lesson learned from, “Oh, the places you’ll go!”).

Clue #2

“In the fall and spring, I like creating stuff in people’s yards with rocks and bricks.”

A few years back one of my best friends asked if I’d like to help him with a few landscaping jobs. He and his mom owned a part of their family business at that point and dealt with the landscaping part of the organization. I said that I didn’t know much about it, but that I would certainly be willing to give it a shot. That friend is certainly one of the greatest friends I’ve ever had and his entire family has become like a second family to me as well. He and his wife (also one of my best friends) recently had their first child, a beautiful baby girl, and I think I was as proud of them as their parents or even as proud as they were of themselves for creating something so wonderful as this amazing little girl.

When I went through an extremely rough time in my life, he and his wife were there for me. He gave me a job when our business went through the worst summer we ever had and also gave me the friendship I so desperately needed during a time when I needed someone to just be there for me. He and his family certainly played a very large role in getting me back on track with who I am, and in doing so became a part of who I define myself as being.

For the kids I was going to be reading to, the ones that rode my bus knew that in the fall of the year, I didn’t drive the afternoon portion of my route because I was busy working at my landscaping job, and we often had conversations about what exactly landscaping was, we may also have a conversation or two on creating things on my bus so I was hoping the two things in one clue would really help them along! So something I never thought I would do, I didn’t even really have an interest in it, has now become part of my life and the people that I work with doing the “job” have taken up residence in my life as well.

Something that a lot of people may not know is that I actually considered moving away from where I am right now after this past summer, but then I thought of these “friends” of mine, the ones that are so much more than that, and I thought about how a few of them were going to be starting their families, and how if I moved away I wouldn’t get to see their kids grow up, and I wouldn’t have these people in my life anymore, and I decided that despite whatever else was going on with me, these were the important things in my life that they were the things worth holding on to…and so I stayed. Now there are three new little people in this world who I know have amazing parents and I hope to be part of their lives as they grow into the amazing little people I know they will become. I wouldn’t give that up for anything, and I wouldn’t give these “friends” of mine up either.

Clue #3

“I think basketball is better than hockey because the skates are too hard to tie.”

When the principal read this clue the kids erupted in “boos!” It was pretty great. My brother and I have gotten to drive the elementary kids down to skate four times over the last couple of months and every time we do, we help them tie their skates. As I am an avid basketball fan, I take this opportunity to recruit the kids and tell them that basketball shoes are so much easier to tie so they should just play that sport instead. I’m not afraid to pander.

Other than basketball being a big part of my life and a tool my family has used to raise a ton of money for cancer research through our charity basketball tournament, “Hoops for Hope” this clue was pretty much just one of those I wanted as a giveaway clue as to whom was going to be reading to them.

Clue #4

“I love music.”

This was another one of those clues that I figured most of the kids would be able to associate with me. If you’re an avid reader of our blog, you know that I’m a big fan of music and I really enjoy letting the kids on my bus listen to it and promote them singing as much as possible as well. On some of those skating days I would get every kid that rode my bus singing songs in between the school and the arena so it was one of the clues where the kids really started putting it together.

 

I lived a portion of my last year with no music, didn’t listen to it at all. Just kind of tuned it out along with so many other important things, and I was pretty miserable during this time…but then I brought it back into my life and I think I have the kids on my bus to thank for really getting me to appreciate the healing power that it holds. So I thank them for that, and for allowing me to bring some music to their lives as well.

 

 

Clue #5

“I’m one of the first people the kids see in the morning.”

I was all out of good clues and I figured that the kids would either put it together at this point, or they would be very creped out!

 

So the kids started to figure it out and then I stuck my head out of the classroom I was hiding in and all of the kids started yelling my name and that was pretty darn cool. The principal introduced me, but the kids all already knew me…just a bus driver for the school, but they made me feel like so much more. I read to them, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” and thought of the places I’ve gone and where I have yet to go. I thought about all of these wonderful kids and I hoped they wouldn’t have to experience my dark times but get to live all of the joy I’ve had in my life. I thought about the kids who have created things for me on my bus, or just sat and talked with me about learning, traveling, landscaping, sports, and life in general and I was pretty proud that I was asked to come and read to these awesome little kids. I think they certainly have the potential to make the world a better place, but for the first time for a long time…I thought that I still have that potential too, and so do you.

 

So we don’t generally get a ton of comments for our blogs here, but this being our 50^th blog, I’m hoping we can change that. Here’s what I’d like to see; give us five clues as to who you, our reader is. You can post anonymously if you’d like, or you can tell us who you are and with your clues give us a better idea of who you really are! My kids on my bus don’t always create the things that I ask them to, but I think they at least talk about it a lot with their parents and other people, so if you don’t comment I hope you at least spend some time discussing or thinking about this subject yourself. It’s good for our souls to reflect, it tells us where we’ve come from and reminds us of all the places we can go!