57

earlier this week, i found myself on the 57 bus from watertown yard to kenmore square. i rode the bus the entire route and was on it for about 50 minutes. i planned poorly for my bus trip and, after moving closer to the heart of the city last year, i am out of practice on long public transportation trips. i forgot my ipod and i am in between books. i rarely pick up one of the free newspapers because all of my trips are too short to get any good reading done. the bus wasn't crowded and there wasn't much traffic, but it wasn't long before i found myself getting annoyed with the people on the bus.

there was the 50-something man who got on at oak square with his two sons and a random lady. the father was trying to talk to an older asain man about his t-shirt, but the asain man could clearly not speak english. instead of just leaving him be, the father sat next to him and tried to explain in hand gestures what he was trying to say. the teenage son was flirting with the random lady they got on the bus with and the 12 year old son was hanging off of the hand railing.

after that, the stops became more frequent. we picked up the nurse on her way home from work at the hospital who was on her phone; the teenager who smelled of spray paint and carried paint cans; and two best friends--one wearing a tiara and a "twenty-one" sash and the other documenting every moment of it.

the bus started to fill up, especially in the front while i watched from the back of the bus. i was annoyed at the woman on her phone (can't it wait?) and the kid sitting in front of me who smelled like paint (what a punk!) and the girls celebrating a birthday (really? on a wednesday?!)

then, at harvard ave., a new mom, with stroller and child in tow, along with her friend, got on the bus. an older man who was sitting at the front of the bus got out of his seat and folded it up so there was room for the stroller and the mom to sit out of the way. the man then had to stand since he gave up his seat so the stroller could be out of the way. i started to get annoyed at everyone else, too, for not letting the poor guy sit down.

at the same time, though, i started to think how nice it was. this man, who i would place in his late 60s, gave up his seat for a healthy younger woman because she had a baby and his seat was the easiest place for them to be. you don't find many people like that, i thought to myself. and you know why? because everyone is too busy being annoyed with cell phones and punk kids and drunk students.

i realized that all the annoyances of the bus are actually what make it so great. here i am, a 20-something working gal, sharing space with people who i have nothing in common with other than proximity of destination. the annoying woman with the cell phone? she could have saved a life today. the punk kid with the spray paint? i decided he was on his way to art class instead of on his way to deface public property. and the mother? she just had a baby! these were amazing, interesting people. and for a short while, we were all headed on the same journey together.

i probably have very little in common with an elderly man riding the 57, but for 20 minutes, our lives crossed paths. really, it was just a smaller version of what is happening in life all the time. people get on and get off. if we are going to the same place, we might spend more time together, but if the drunk college girls want to go to the bar and i want to go home and go to bed, that is fine. we both move on. i can't control the people getting on and off the bus, all i can control is my attitude toward them. i can turn a crappy bus ride into an interesting and heart-warming one. i can turn a bad situation into a good one.