I have one particular student on my school bus. The first time I picked her up, and then a few hours later, the first time I dropped her off at her home, I noticed she got off the bus with a hop.
I chuckled.
I saw that every time she got off at home, she would hop. She walked down the aisle of the bus normally, and walked down the steps normally, but then there was a hop.
Every single day, without fail, a hop.
It reminded me of how some kindergarten kids exit the bus. Their small size, some feel, makes it easier to hop. Now, for safety reasons, the rules are no hopping, but kids are kids, and there is an element of fun in a hop, so they keep doing it until they are bigger. Hopping off the bus ends very quickly for most kids.
But not this one high school girl.
Hop.
And she hops as if she is still in kindergarten. A small kid will have a backpack that’s as heavy as she is, and when she hops, it requires her knees to bend and buckle a lot to absorb the weight. This teenager is no longer carrying an oversized backpack; she rarely has anything in her arms, yet she still hops off as if she is carrying a large mass. She then steps away normally, and I drive off with a smile on my face.
Then I witnessed something. Something that she probably had no idea had happened.
A hop.
Not any ordinary hop.
But her last hop.
Her very last hop off a school bus.
Why?
It was her last day of school. Her very last day of school. No more high school. No more school bus. No more hop.
I witnessed her last ever hop.
Most kids finish high school at the legal age of adulthood, but school is still very much a part of being a child. Even when you’re in school, even if you’re legally an adult, the school still treats you and has authority over you as if you are still a child.
When this girl walked down the aisle of my school bus on her last day of school, stepped down the steps, and hopped out of childhood. That first step after her hop was her first true step as an adult.
And I was honoured to see this transition.
To all my grade 12s, I wish you the best and all the success you can have now that you are adults in this world. Thank you for letting me be your driver.
