Summer so far...

Summer time is here and it really does go by way too fast!

It seems like just yesterday we were getting everything ready for our opening day at our campground but it’s hard to believe that that was already over a month ago! So far we haven’t seen a lot of what most normal humans would call, “summer,” but it is here and we have to take full advantage of it.

So far we’ve spent a lot of our time preparing to get busy with tubers and campers, but the one thing about the tourism industry is that you are so dependent on the weather and water conditions and so many other factors that are completely out of your control. But when things fall into place we become super busy and it’s one of the most fun jobs around. Every day is different, even if you’re doing the same things. Any job where you’re interacting with customers is the same way. You offer the same service to everyone but the individuals you’re dealing with are such a huge part of the whole service that whoever they are and theirs and your interactions really become the product.

We’ve been really lucky over the years to hire some fantastic people who have really become like family to us. I think the kids that have worked for us, or our parents, over the years truly get the feeling that we really do care for them and go out of our way to ensure that they have plenty of hours and that they never feel like they’re on their own. We give them plenty of shit along the way but I think we also try to prepare them for life and everything that comes next for them. It’s a fast paced environment, when we’re busy, and you deal with so many random people. Most of the customers are absolutely fantastic, but every now and then you deal with a jerk, but this happens no matter what career you choose.

We have had some of the most introverted people in the world work for us over the years and after a short period of time with us they become far more outgoing and boisterous. It’s one of the things we pride ourselves on. I love to see kids who seem to stick to themselves and don’t really seem like they know how to interact with people come out of their shells with us and the customers. The experience they get working with the different people at the campground really does open them up to dealing with anything, anywhere.

In case you were wondering why my brother, sisters, and myself can generally talk to anyone and aren’t afraid to try new things, we’ve grown up in an environment where you were doing this every day. Our business has shaped us into the individuals we are today, and although some people haven’t always liked our business, I hope when they take the time to actually get to know us, they start to see what our business truly is.

The summer has been pretty rough on me physically too, as I’m finding out that I’m getting old…

I started running last year, and somehow found myself actually enjoying it, and this year I decided to train to run a half marathon with my friend Dan in the fall of the year. I began my outside running in early May and shortly after I began to have some trouble with my calf. I continued to try to run on it but one day I made it about .7 miles and thought I would have to call for a ride home! It caused me so much pain that I wasn’t able to walk normally and began to worry that it may cause me other problems…because I’m old…and I don’t really want to have a hip replacement yet!

I recently ordered some leg sleeves which I held out doing because I didn’t want to look too professional (or ridiculous) while I trained, but hopefully they will help. I bought them based on a recommendation from a friend who had been having similar problems with his calf…turns out it was torn and he told me that there was nothing he could do and that the calf would never be as strong as it once was…I told him thanks for the advice Debbie Downer and began to sob into my pillow.

The problem with not running is that:

1. The Blerch is catching me.

2. I’m still on my bus driving sleep schedule so I have too much down time in the mornings.

3. I’m so much more tired all of the time.

4. I promised some of my bus kids that I would run the Lions Club 5K with them!

It’s crazy what a little exercise will do for you, it’s hard to get yourself to start sometimes but it really is crazy how hard it is to stop when you get going on a routine. You feel bad about missing a workout day, which is something I never thought would be the case for me. In college I played a lot of basketball and generally felt a little bad if I missed a day playing, the difference was that the exercise wasn’t doing me as good because I would spend most of my nights after basketball playing “31” with the Four Horseman.

The one thing that I’m seriously lacking in doing this summer is reading. I got a ton of books on my Kindle for free through Amazon (I enjoy the classics, and luckily Amazon offers a ton of these for free!) but I’ve only read a couple of books this summer and hopefully before long I’m too busy to read except on my days off…which hopefully I won’t have a lot of!

It’s been a busy summer so far, even though we haven’t been too busy business wise. One of these days that will pick up though and then I probably won’t have time to even blog…but there are some other exciting things that are coming up for Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons as well! We’ll keep you posted on that as soon as we get the go ahead!

I hope you’re all enjoying your summer so far!

100-0

I just returned home from a trip to Minnesota. I had an amazing trip and despite only being there for 5 days, I was able to see lots of friends and family. The main purpose of the trip was to attend my friend Kevin’s wedding. Kevin is like a brother to me and I am super blessed to have such a great friend and I am especially thankful for the time that I got to spend with him during the weekend of his wedding.

During the reception, Kevin’s father, Rocky, spoke to the new bride and groom. Rocky has had a tough year. He was diagnosed with Lymphoma almost a year ago. Through the grace of God and modern medicine he is doing very well and his prognosis is very good. Kevin and I spoke several times about his father while he was receiving treatment. It was another life experience that we went through together as my Dad also had a health scare this year. He ended up having heart surgery to repair a damaged valve. We are both very thankful of the time that we have with our fathers. Perhaps more so now than ever.

Anyway, during Rocky’s speech he referred to the common notion that a marriage is a 50-50 relationship. He said that he disagreed with this and that it should be more like 100-0. He explained that to have a truly happy marriage you give 100 percent to make your spouse happy and look for nothing in return. And further, if both people in the marriage do this then what a wonderful marriage they will experience.

This thought really made an impression with me. I thought a lot about it the day after the wedding. This of course was after several hours and cups of coffee in an attempt to clean all the booze out of my system. I also think I was still hungover from drinking Johnny Jump Ups with Ryan and Jason and observing the sun come up a few nights earlier.

The more I thought about this idea of 100-0 the more I began to realize that many of my friends and family seem to live this way. During my 5 day trip I had been the benefactor of the generosity of many of these people. My dad, who gave up 2 days of his still fresh retirement to pick me up in Fargo, take me to the Angle where he helped me clean out our camper in preparation for selling it, and finally driving me back to Fargo to catch a ride to the cities with another friend. He never asked for anything in return and even told me how much fun it was. My Grandma, who is the master of “Just putting a little something together” worked her magic again and invited some relatives over to her house so that I could see them. She did this even though she was hosting a major family get-together a few days later. Ryan and Jason, who picked me up and showed me we still aren’t grown up, paid for every drink (I can’t remember if I offered to pay, but my bank account shows that I didn’t) and gave me awesome Hoops for Hope T-shirts for my entire family. We always have a great time and no matter how much work they have to do the next day, always make time to hang out with me. Next there are all of my friends from Northland. I haven’t seen many of them for several years. It was like we never missed a day. They were all generous to give me a lift while I was in the cities so that I didn’t miss any of the events. I was also very happy to get to spend time with their spouses and get to know them better. I found out very quickly why they were “chosen.” I can see how they fit right in with the weird sense of humor and true generosity that all of my friends seem to share. Then there is Kevin. I am so thankful for our friendship and for the time that he spent with me during the weekend of his wedding. His new wife was also kind enough to let us spend some quality time before she stole him away into wedded bliss. Finally, my brother-in-law picked me up Sunday afternoon, after which we spent time at his house, “Murder Bay,” hanging out with his friends before he brought me to the airport.

As I reflected on my trip and thought about Rocky’s statement, I began to realize how much truth there was in his statement. All of the people that I had spent the last several days with all gave much more than I deserve, so that I could have a good trip. And beyond that, because of their generosity and giving nature I had a great trip. In fact, one of the best that I can remember.

So as a challenge to myself, I have been really trying to focus on this simple little idea, 100-0. Give 100 percent to make someone’s life easier and expect nothing in return. And with the spirit of BD&LL I challenge all of our readers (I think we are up to 8 regular readers now) to do the same. Imagine how awesome our world would be if we all lived this way. But more importantly, imagine how you can change, if even just one small moment, the lives of people around you. If we could all do our best to help or extend a small gesture of kindness to those around us we are changing the world for the better. Even if it is just for that person.

Cheers!

Mr. Dolores

Father's Day

I know I just wrote another blog like last night, but I like to touch on all the important holidays and Father’s Day certainly deserved its own post!

My Mother’s Day post highlighted the fact that my mom always believed in me and convinced me that I really could do and be anything I ever wanted. She was certainly the more vocal one when it came to chasing my dreams, but that does not diminish all of the amazing things my dad has done for me and the rest of his kids throughout our lives.

My dad grew up like a lot of people of his generation…broke. They had a family farm over by Erskine, MN and that was more than anything, just so they would have food on their table. They also built Quonsets and a lot of other stuff to help pay the bills and everything else. The really cool thing is that most of these buildings are still standing!

But my dad never wanted us to have to have that same life. I think all parents hope for better than they had it for their kids and my dad was certainly no exception.

He was a lot like me, whether he wants to admit it or not. He bounced around between several jobs, not because he couldn’t do them, but they just didn’t seem to satisfy his hunger to do more, to provide more for his family.

One story I remember from when I was a kid was that my dad was working as a QRC (qualified rehabilitation consultants) , the same job my mom did for a good portion of her life, and his company had been bought and he, nor his co-workers, liked a lot of the changes that were happening, especially one of the new bosses. He went down to a meeting for the company and before it began, his new boss told him that he better not say anything otherwise he would be fired, but my dad’s co-workers were counting on him to stand up for the rest of them, so he went into the meeting, spoke his piece and the lady made sure that he no longer worked for the company.

That’s where we get our backbone. What’s right is right and my dad always taught us to make sure we stick up for the little guy. Consequently, we’ve become a family of doers rather than sayers. I’ve gotten myself in plenty of trouble with friends, family, etc. for speaking my mind and sticking up for what was right and it’s something I’ve never regretted. Some things are worth fighting for, my dad taught me that.

Thirty-one years ago, my dad and mom, as well as a great group of individuals decided that the kids of Red Lake Falls needed something more to do in the summer time. They set their goal on putting a swimming pool in town for the youth and began their fundraising efforts. They sold raffle tickets to win a car, went door to door, and several other things…but one fundraiser changed everything for our family and that was a “tube race.”

A local family had been renting tubes out of their garage and the group, including my parents, went to see if they could promote a fundraiser to try and get people into town to go tubing down the river and try to raise money for the local swimming pool. The day of the event over 1,000 people showed up!

A light bulb quickly went off in a lot of people’s minds including my parents. My mom was a world class promoter, everything I know of customer service and marketing I’ve learned from her, but my dad was the one who said, this is going to work, no matter what. Luckily they both have some stubborn German blood in them, (as do we) and although there were and continue to be, several hard times, we’ve stuck it out.

The goal of making sure this dream succeeded for my dad wasn’t so he would have something to be remembered by some day, it was so he could create something that could provide for a better life for his family. When I first went to college my dad was dead set on me getting a teaching degree because it was the profession that worked best for us to continue to operate the campground. He wanted us to be able to do both, he knew that life could be tough and that he found something that could make life a little easier for us, but my mom had spent enough time with my dad to know the important thing, the thing that she loved most about him, was that he was passionate about the things he loved, his kids and his family.

That led to him wanting us to never want, to not have the hard times that he went through but my mom realized that he never would have been the man she loved so much if he hadn’t gone through these hard times, that the perseverance that he showed in coming up from nothing made him who he is today. She didn’t want us to ever have terrible hardships either, but she understood that choosing our own path was in our blood, that by telling us to do one thing would almost certainly lead us in a completely different direction…that we had too much of our dad in us.

When we were kids my dad once told us that his favorite flower was dandelions, so as most kids would do, we presented him with bouquet upon bouquet of dandelions for Father’s Day and his birthday…now we spend a lot of money each year trying to kill every last one of them! But the point was that he knew we wanted to show him that we loved him and as usual, he tried to give us the easiest way to do so.

Believe it or not, sometimes my dad and I butt heads a bit. Maybe we’re too much alike, who knows. I think both of us would agree that we could maybe handle some of the situations differently. He could probably give me a little more slack as I’m obviously attempting to become a better human being, and I could try a little harder to assist him as he never slows down and must always be doing something. We’re different like that, though. I appreciate the quiet times, a good book or movie, and just having a little time to sort stuff out in my head. He thinks on the go, and a lot of times maybe even over thinks things. He worries quite a bit about the little things because he knows that if you let too many little things build up they become big things, and he still hasn’t stopped worrying about his kids.

He works harder than anyone I’ve ever known, even though he’s been “retired” for several years now. We would love for him to be able to just relax and travel as there are very few people I know more deserving of a break, yet he helps us out so much that it’s hard to imagine where we would be without him.

I have a good feeling that if he took a much deserved vacation, though, that we would survive just fine. He’s taught us the importance of hard work and I think he’s turned out some pretty awesome kids. I once told someone that I wasn’t worried about having kids ever because I had two very amazing parents who I think taught me how to be an amazing parent, and one day I hope to prove that statement true.

My goal was to be able to buy a dog for my dad on my birthday, but taxes prevented that from happening and a slow summer so far has prevented me from making any giant leaps forward either, so we’ll shoot for his birthday in August. It seems weird for my dad to not have a dog. For as long as I can remember we’ve always had a springer spaniel and although I have one, I think my dad misses his companion Molly. She never was a good hunter…or really anything, but she was a hell of a companion and the happiest damn dog I’ve ever seen, a good dog owner will generally turn out that kind of dog…a good parent will do the same for their children!

I owe so much to my dad for everything that he’s done for us and for everything that he’s taught me. I sincerely enjoy reading, watching movies, and writing for this blog…none of which are things that my dad particularly enjoys, but he does read the blog. I was recently talking to him about how cool it must be to look at our Facebook page for Voyageur’s View (the company he and my mom started) and see that we have just about 5,000 friends and over 1,500 Page “likes,” how something he started is so darn popular now and how I promote the crap out of our blog and we have under 160 “likes.” His response, “yeah but I don’t have to do anything, we just built it and people show up, you guys have to write and be creative and stuff.”

I think that’s about as close to hearing him say that he’s proud of this weird little creative outlet of ours that I’ve heard from him, but it certainly made me feel pretty good about it. It doesn’t matter how many “likes” we get…it’s the quality of the “likes” that matter.

I know that not everyone has an awesome dad or mom in their lives, and I truly feel sorry for that. I can only hope that you have someone that has filled this void, someone that cares for you like our parents have cared for us. Someone who tells you to chase your dreams, but tries to provide a security net in case you fall. People who love you, ones that don’t always tell you, but always find ways to show you.

I’ve been lucky to have both in my life. Amazing people who have not only told me to chase my dreams, but people who have done so and caught them. People who have showed me that sometimes your dreams shouldn’t be about yourself, but what you can do for others, for your family, and for people you care about. Recognition of love doesn’t always happen in the moment, but if you’re lucky you’ll have people in your life that don’t need you to recognize it, they’re just going to keep making it happen regardless. Then one day you’ll look back and say, I wonder why they did all those things for me, I was such an ungrateful prick, and hopefully the response will be something along the lines of; “Yes you were son. Yes you were. But we loved you regardless, and thanks for the dog.”

Happy Father’s Day everyone, tonight we dine on Steak!

When Kelly Comes to Town

If I were a Meme.

Recently one of the contributors to BDandLL traveled all the way from Arizona to the great state of Minnesota and although he was only here for a very short period of time, he decided to spend a night hanging out with a couple of misfit brothers.

It had Banana in it, so it fits...

I made it seem like this rendezvous would lead to a night full of debauchery similar to our “Men’s Weekend” in Minneapolis, but as we quickly found out, there’s not a whole lot going on around our area on a Thursday night, but we can always make our own fun and just getting to see each other usually seems to be enough.

For a frame of reference, last time he and I hung out we spent the night sitting in my basement drinking Jameson and trying to shoot a fly, or Asian Beetle (depending on your perspective and intoxication level) with an air soft pistol. Spoiler alert: We got that son of a bitch around 4:30 in the morning…we think.

Another standard for when we get to hang out is that he always has to go fishing, or do something the next day so that he has to leave by like 5am…never fails, and it never stops us from taking advantage of every second we have together, which kind of leads to the whole point of this…

I just wanted to put this in here because I found it randomly while looking for images and the caption said: REASONS I BROKE UP WITH YOU, and here's the why:

"You were a funeral director and we had banana double banana daiquiris at TGIFridays. I had sex with you out of pity, but then I sneaked out the window."

So Kelly’s dad is coming to pick him up at 5am to head to Fargo where he then has to hop in another car and get a ride to the cities. As usual we go out and attempt to have a few Banana Daiquiris but the first bar we went to led to this conversation:

Me: Do you guys make any sort of frozen cocktail?!

Waitress: You can ask the bar tender.

Me: Hmmm…because I could really go for a Banana Daiquiri…

Waitress: You can ask the bar tender.

Me: …well, do you guys have a blender?

Waitress: [Starts to walk away]

Me: I’ll just have a bud light…{under my breath} Fun Hater…

Our next stop was obviously TNJ’s where we were supposed to meet the fourth Musketeer, Jesse, but his son had had an accident that night and he decided to stay home. We think he still has a hard time facing Kelly though, ever since he stole Kelly’s sons name for his own son…

But TNJ’s does not serve Banana Daiquiris, not even for Volleyball nights, which would totally make TNJ’s the greatest place to be on Monday nights, but alas that’s still the Bar in Oklee which apparently does make Daiquiris! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my loyalty is for sale and its beginning to look like the Oklee bar may be my new hangout…unless Jesse gets his act together and gets a Blender!

Ever read something thinking it’s going to be a blog and it just turns out to be a rant about blenders? Now you have!

Anyway, back to the night!

There’s only a handful of people out and about and I think it was just the three of us and Fikin’ Swayze that close the place down but we had a heck of a good time.

Of course that meant it was only 2am and as I stated, Kelly didn’t have to be on the road until 5am so of course we got a road pizza, headed back to my place, cooked it up and proceeded to solve the rest of the world’s problems…the problem with that was that we had also had a few Jamie Jump-Ups throughout the night so even though I know we solved all of the problems, I simply forgot the answers.

But at some point in the conversation we were trying to figure out how we got to be such good friends. The kind of friends where if you only have a day or two to see everyone you know, you at least try to see each other, and you know what…none of us could figure it out.

Funny how life works like that sometimes. It doesn’t matter how you met all of your friends, you just kind of grow together and decide, yep, that’s someone I enjoy spending time with. I suppose all relationship tend to evolve like this but the nice thing is that it didn’t matter to us, we had gotten to the point where we were friends, even more than that, brothers. It doesn’t matter how we got here, but that’s where we are.

I love to travel and to see places that I’ve never been before, but last year was tough because there was a handful of people that I really just wanted to make a trip to see, Kelly and his family, My cousins Scott and Mike, Alex and Andrea, and another BDandLL-er, Mike, to name a few. I didn’t really have the urge to travel to some faraway place, I just missed some of these people that I’ve grown awfully attached to over the years and have since moved away.

I’ve been awfully lucky to have friends and family like this in my life and although I wasn’t able to make it to see them, it’s nice when they come up or over or down or wherever they always find time to stop to see me. I hope everyone has friends like mine.

You know…friends that buy blenders for their bars…

It's only about $500 on Amazon, you'd make that back the first night guaranteed!

The Death of Creativity?

As I am once again overdue for my latest blog post, I turned to some other creative types for inspiration. I first began by asking others to suggest other blogs for me to read through my status on Facebook and when that didn’t have people screaming from the roof tops, “you have to read this, it’ll change your life” (except for The Oatmeal, from Kari), I read some of the blogs I already follow and looked for other great blogs that those bloggers recommended.

First, though, I read this post from Kurt Reynolds blog, Teacherscribe.

Did you read it? Just click the link! You have to read at least the first part for the rest of this to make sense!

I can wait…

Just read it already, it’s not going to take up the rest of your day, just a few extra minutes…

Still waiting…

Alright, if you haven’t read it by now, you’re only cheating yourself. Here’s the comic that the post is kind of centered around:

 

I had seen the comic before and I thought the same thing that Kurt thought, that it may be one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.

I’ve written before about how I could always entertain myself, still can. But imagine if when I was younger if my parents had seen the things that I would do and my rambunctiousness as a disability rather than just a great imagination and a lot of energy.

Here’s a list of a bunch of other blogs that I’ve stolen from Allie Brosh who writes her own blog (and Book) called Hyperbole and aHalf.

PBF comics

Hark, A Vagrant

27bslash6 (David Thorne's Blog)

The Oatmeal

Nedroid

Whiteboard Unicorns

Cake Wrecks

The Bloggess

Buttersafe

Chicken Maker

Dramatic Reading of A Real Breakup Letter

Gary: Landlord of the Flies

Steam Me Up Kid

 I stole the list from her for two reasons; one, she’s fricken hilarious and you should definitely be reading her stuff, and two, she’s super creative and suffers, like a lot of creative people, from depression.

Now you’re probably thinking, wow! This is the most depressing thing I have ever read. Give me a minute here…

The greatest thing about being a creative person is the ability to come up with creative ways to deal with the things that bother you. The problem is that a lot of times the usual things like medication or talking to someone, even friends, don’t always work so you have to get creative. I think, like myself, writing really helped Allie get through her lowest lows and helped her turn out an unbelievably funny book that makes me smile every time I even see it. If you spend any time on any of the social media sites, you’ve more than likely seen at least one of Allie Brosh’s drawings, here’s one that you’ll probably recognize:

It’s her character throughout her posts and the slightest expression on her face along with her great story telling ability will make you cry with laughter. Something simple, creative, and very funny.

Now imagine if Allie Brosh’s parents had said that there was something wrong with her as a child (and she’ll be the first to tell you that they probably should have!) If they had tried to curb her imagination, and enthusiasm with drugs we may never have had Hyperbole and a Half, or any of the other fantastic blogs that she follows.

Kids can be tough to deal with some times, as a school bus driver I certainly know that, but as a person who was once in their shoes, and can still act like them from time to time, I think as adults it’s important that we attempt to weather the storm. Look for creative outlets for these kids, chances are you may find that they’re just not being pushed in the right direction, that they need something to let them express themselves.

I do still get angry from time to time when the kids are really messing around on the bus, or if my niece and nephew are screwing around, but I like to try and remember that I was once in their shoes. That I was a kid who probably pissed off my parents an awful lot but was given a lot of slack (and guidance) to get myself into the right position.

For all of the hours I spent talking to my GI Joes and Transformers I’m surprised I didn’t end up in a looney bin, but thankfully my parents allowed me to be me, and every last ounce of weirdness that came with it. Consequently we now have Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons, where I and all of my creative weirdo friends have an outlet to keep Hobbes alive and well.

I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that the goal of all of us is to one day grow old, but not one of us have the goal of growing up. Somewhere along the line we’re told that everyone must, but the young at heart are the ones for me. The ones who never take life too seriously and never let their creativity or dreams die.

I hope you encourage your kids to be creative, to live a creative life and to not be afraid of taking chances. Have fun and don’t take life too seriously…you’ll never get out alive anyway!

Route 10 Year End Review

Isn't this the happiest damn horse you've ever seen?!

 I usually like to do one kind of serious blog and then have the next one be some random experience that I had that helps me to remember to not take life too seriously. Usually it’s something that really allows me to laugh at myself and hopefully allows some of our readers to relate and maybe not feel so bad about some of the things that they’ve done.

But I also wrote quite a bit this year about one of my “firsts” this year, that being, the first time I drove a full time school bus route, and I just wanted to reflect a little bit on the year that was…

I took the bus driving job this year with the stipulation that I would drive mornings to start off with landscaping for one of my best friends, Kyle, being my main job. When I started the year it seemed like I was doing the school more of a favor and I really didn’t think I was going to get much out of it other than the stress of driving a bunch of kids around.

I quickly began to see how great these kids could be though. Sure they could be a little loud from time to time, maybe a bit unruly, but they ended up giving me a better understanding of myself and helped me to remember that patience is a virtue.

Some really cool "scratch art from some great kids!

I began to post daily “Life Lessons” on my bus around the same time I picked up my pen again and started writing for this blog. As previously mentioned in Mike’s blog, these things we write are even more for us as individuals as they are for you our readers. I don’t write about life lessons because I have everything figured out, I write and post life lessons on my bus to open the doors of conversation so that we can figure out this thing called life together.

You’d be surprised by some of the awesome conversations you can have with kids when you post a life lesson about making sure to try and live a happy life, or how to live a creative one.

When you really stop to think about the time I spent with these kids this past year, and how much time they spend riding school buses, you might stop to wonder why we don’t use this time to try and teach a little more.

On average each kid that lived in the country rode my bus between two and three hours per day, five days a week for a total of 180 days…now I’m not expecting you to do the math, because lets face it…very few of us enjoyed Math in school, or life (lucky for you, I’m in the minority thanks to great teachers like Steve Philion!), but that figures out to each of those kids riding the bus for 360 – 540 hours a year.

In contrast, a typical University course, assuming a 3 credit hour class, has the students for 48 hours in the class room…

Crazy right?

Just a little sample of the hundreds of pieces of art the kids gave me this year!

I just figured those numbers out recently and was astounded. I was lucky enough to live close to the schools in Red Lake Falls, so as a kid I rode for an average of 10 minutes per day unless I was biking or getting a ride from my older siblings. I say lucky, and most people would because when you think about riding a school bus for that long you think to yourself, what a waste of valuable time!

For the most part, the kids on my bus didn’t seem to see it that way though. Maybe it was because they could tell that I genuinely cared about them, or maybe they just thought that the longer they rode, the fewer chores they’d have to do at home! But part way through the year I switched up the route so that the first kid I picked up in the morning got to be the first one I dropped off at night, which reduced the amount of time he rode the bus by about an hour and a half to two hours! It also made it so that almost all of the country kids were riding the bus for about the exact same amount of time.

There were certainly days the kids just wanted to get home, especially the really young ones, but I was able to keep them pretty engaged in conversation that it really seemed to help the time go by a little faster, but when you’ve only been on this planet for a short time, two hours feels like an eternity…I guess when the kids were a little crazy it sometimes felt like an eternity to an old codger like me too!

But in September we started the life lessons, and a pretty cool thing happened. Not only were kids reading them daily, they were engaging in conversations about what they meant. I was very pleasantly surprised that these life lessons, that certainly meant something to me, were also things that these fine young people could also relate too. It opened up my eyes to the fact that many of the reminders I needed in my life are things that we all too often forget, that we’ve been making some of these “mistakes” since we were children.

But kids are a lot more resilient then us old curmudgeons. They make a “mistake,” learn that it was bad, then learn from it and move on. No big show of resentment is needed. They mess up, they fix it, they move on. It doesn’t mean they won’t do it again, it just means that they don’t dwell on things, and that’s something I think we can all look at and wonder, how?

As adults we get caught up in our own heads too often (once again, this definitely is a message for me more than any others). We do waste too much time worrying about the “what if’s” and not enough time thinking, “why not?”

After a few months of posting these “Route 10 Life Lessons,” as well as watching a ton of Kid President videos, I started to really see how awesome these kids were and how awesome they could become, so I decided to do something a lot of bus drivers might not consider, something a lot of kids would probably hate their bus drivers for…I started to give them assignments!

One of the coolest things that was made for me this year! I framed it and am putting it up on my wall...kids are awesome!
You might not be able to read them, but the heart is surrounded by life lessons!

Now these weren’t your typical, read 3 chapters of this book and write a report on what you found assignments, they were geared towards unlocking their creativity and getting them to do more fun things. Very rarely did we discuss just how awesome sitting in front of a TV was, or how playing video games was just a valuable way to spend your time.

We talked about how important it was to read. How reading develops your imagination and with a good imagination and a great book, you can go anywhere you want!

We talked about their hobbies; hunting, gopher trapping, knitting, making bracelets and scarves, drawing, playing different sports, their vacations, and all of the things that you truly hope kids are taking part in.

What I found out from most of these conversations is that people today worry too much about this next generation. They think that they’re lazy, and that they spend entirely too much time wrapped up in technology, but I think that’s more so our problem (advice for me again!).

Some kids will turn out “bad” no matter what their parents do for them. It may be a chemical imbalance or something that occurred in their lives that really changed the person they could have been, but for the most part we truly are shaped by our parents. I can honestly say that the parents I get to deal with because I drive their children to and from school, are fantastic.

There’s no way I would have given these kids the assignments to create something, write a short story, or invent a new game, if I didn’t think that their parents would actively get involved with them and help to spark their creativity as well. Maybe some of the parents have the wool pulled over my eyes, but I strongly believe that they’re all doing a fantastic job and turning out some very caring, compassionate, and creative children.

The results of the assignments I gave were fantastic. Not every kid created something for me throughout the year, but everyone spent some time talking to me about creative things.

Such an awesome story/life lesson!

I do, however, have a giant stack of things that the kids drew for me, stories they wrote, and a couple of very awesome posters that some amazing kids put together for me, including one which features a bunch of life lessons!

The kids are multi-talented, writers
as well as illustrators!

I started out my year in a pretty bad place; I was depressed and admittedly, a little lost. Through great friends, and some amazing kids, I think I found myself back to me and that’s something I’ll always thank the people in my life this past year, including all of the amazing kids on my bus, and the contributors to BD&LL for helping me do.

The daily life lessons will continue next year and I can’t wait to see what the kids and I learn over our summer vacations!

This kids read over 8 Million
words this year!

What started out as a job for me has really become something I look forward to doing now, and I can honestly say that I’m going to miss not getting to see all of these awesome kids throughout the summer. Somehow, 540 hours just wasn’t enough…

I hope everyone has a fantastic summer, experience as many “firsts” as you can, take some chances, make some bad choices, and learn some life lessons. The BD&LL crew will continue to try and keep spreading the lessons we learn and need to remember ourselves, and we hope that you can relate a bit! This is the crazy time of year for me, so I’m hoping to keep up with my weekly posts, but if I can’t…I promise to at least keep up with my Banana Daiquiris!

On my last day, some very awesome kids gave me this...then stole
all my cookies on the way home! Haha, I love the kids on my bus!

Have a great summer everyone!

Firsts

I spent the last week at a resort in a Cancun, Mexico. One morning, towards the end of the trip, I woke up, went and sat in the balcony hammock and wrote this in my notebook. I like it; I hope you do too:

I’m in Cancun, Mexico at the Moon Palace resort. First resort, first time in Cancun, first experience with this terribly convenient arrangement they call “all inclusive.” Life is pretty good at the moment, but as my wife and I, along with her family, wrap up the last couple days for our week-long stay here, I figured it appropriate to lay down a few firsts that I’ve experienced here. Some of them great, some of them pretty mundane (first time in the Houston airport, big deal eh?), some of them quite unpleasant. Why? Because I think many of us (and I know this for myself) get too comfortable with this experience of life. Our lives take place in the small world of work, home and family and we forget about the wider world and the experience it can give us. I believe getting out of one’s comfort zone is essential to overall well-being. But at the same time can be an incredibly difficult thing to do. We fear the unknown because we fear the unpredictability of it, we fear the “what-if’s?.”

One of my firsts on this trip was “zip lining” over the tops of the trees along the Yucatan coastline. Many what-if’s come to mind while strapped in a nylon harness connecting to a pulley system suspending you 150 feet in the air along ¼ mile stretches of steel cable traveling 20-25 mph. What if the cable breaks, what if these 1-inch wide nylon straps rip, what if a pulley seizes up leaving me dangling over the long drop to ground, stuck? Any of these what-if’s could happen and the fact they make you sign a waiver absolving them of responsibility if you get injured or killed doesn’t exactly instill more confidence or dissolve away the what-if’s. On top of that, I’m not much a fan of heights. But, it’s a chance I took, suspending my disbelief in the equipment, doing my best to overcome my fear of heights, and I had a fucking blast. On my own, I wouldn’t have signed up for this, but sometimes peer-pressure works for the best.

That is not to say that every first is going to turn out all that great. It’s a risk-reward system (isn’t life?) and, well, “Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you.”

My first in the Caribbean Sea, my first scuba dive there, my first time diving from a boat. This lead to my first negative diving experience (couldn’t get my ears to equalize and most likely did some damage to my right ear), my first sight of a sting ray, the first time I ever ran out of air (I was at the surface thankfully), and the first time being sea sick - which lasted for another day getting off the boat. All-in-all my Saturday in Cancun was pretty damn lousy. I wouldn’t suggest diving with that company, but that is a matter for me and Yelp, I suppose. I was scheduled for another two dives this morning, but the risk in this case (further damage to my ear, along with perhaps another bout of seasickness) just isn’t worth it. There is no easy formula for deciding on doing things in life, experiencing firsts, out weighing risks, and evaluating what-if’s. Use your best judgement, don’t let fear rule, but well placed fear usually keeps us alive.

When I first began writing for this blog, I felt uncomfortable, as I thought (and still do) that giving life-advice to other people is pretentious, dangerous, and perhaps rude. But as i’ve continued to put the pen to paper for BD&LL, I've learned that these life lessons have mostly been for myself. You can take it or leave it, and I certainly take no responsibility for the shit you may get yourself into thinking you’re following my advice. This is what has worked and not worked for me. These are my own life-lessons that I continuously have to remind myself to follow. This is me, stumbling around life’s stage, trying to make sense of the void, wondering if it all has a purpose, and doing my best - and sometimes not my best - to learn from my failures and successes.

But as the noon sun beats down and the all-inclusive alcohol beckons, I find myself drawn poolside to catch a few last rays of equatorial sun. I leave you with a few more firsts experienced on this trip:

-First manicure & pedicure (Yeah, I know. So what.)

-First time visiting Mayan ruins (Chichen-Itza)

-First time I’ve felt like an asshole for saying “thank you” - this one needs an explanation: every time I say “thank you” to a staff member, waiter/waitress, etc., they respond with “my pleasure.” I feel like that should be followed up with “my lord” or “my lady” as if we’re royalty or something. I’m not a fan of elitism and thus, I feel like a jerk.

-First room service (See above, but it’s still awesome.)

-First time I’ve wrote a blog sitting in a hammock - Yep, getting lame now. Signing off. Salud!