Faith in kindness

Where I have one of the best days driving...

A week or so back I wrote a well-received post about elderly passengers. Several people told me “It’s your best post yet!” How do I top that? Should I even try? Talk about pressure.

This post isn’t that post but it is another heart-warming tale, this time about young people. It restored my faith in human kindness.

My first trip of the day is a school run, delivering students to St. Marys, Wellington Girls College, and Queen Margaret’s.

Since I started this school run I’ve been trying my hardest to get the girls to reciprocate my morning welcome. Some acknowledge me when they hop on the bus, and some refuse to engage, no matter how hard I try. There’s a limit to how hard I try to engage them, and I do know when enough is enough.

The strange thing about this is that while many girls are “too cool for school” when they hop on the bus, almost all will say “Thank you” when they get off. What’s that about?

Back to the trip. A school run is a bit like groundhog day. I pick up the same girls at the same stop and those girls tend to sit in the same seats. There are friend groups who sit together. Some of the girls I collect first will sit in the same seat near the rear of an empty bus. Some, who are last on the bus, will be forced to stand.

At my fourth stop, I collect around 15 students. One of these girls always sits in the front seat on the left side of the bus. She’ll put her bag next to her to ‘save’ the seat for her friend who hops on four stops later.

The first girl is always friendly. She’ll make eye contact and say hello. When she gets off at school she’ll often say “Thanks, driver. I hope you have a good day!” It’s sweet.

On the Tuesday before Easter, she gets on the bus. She has her Snapper card ready and scans it on the terminal. Then she reaches into a pocket and pulls out a packet of Lindt Easter eggs and hands them to me.

“Happy Easter!” she says.

I was gobsmacked.

“Oh, my goodness. That’s so nice of you. Thank you so much. Of course, it won’t do my waistline much good, but I really appreciate it. You’ve made my day!” I reply.

Honestly, it was so unexpected and simply delightful.

Four stops later, her friend hops on the bus. This girl is a little more reserved, shy even. She doesn’t make eye contact, but she does say hello. She sits beside her friend in the front seat, and we continue our journey.

At Wellington Girls College, most of the students get off the bus. This also involves a ritual. Standing students get off first, and then there’s this unspoken, unwritten procedure for how the rest of the girls exit. It makes no sense, except that it’s always done in a particular order, which never changes from one day to the next.

The two girls in the front seat are often the last to get off, exiting through the front door. The shy girl is first. She climbs off the seat and tags off, then turns to me to say goodbye. In her hand is a bag of Cadbury Creme Eggs.

“Happy Easter,” she says.

My mouth drops.

“Thank you so much,” I say. I was lost for words. This was truly unexpected.

Easter eggs were given to me by some wonderfully generous school students.

I realised later that week that this was pre-planned. The eggs were delivered to me on the Tuesday before Easter. Wednesday is a ‘late start day’ so many students don’t take the early bus to school. And on Thursday, Wellington Girls is closed for the Easter weekend. Tuesday was the only opportunity for gifting eggs to a kindly bus driver.

I was on a high for the rest of the week. First, I write about elderly passengers, and then two young people demonstrate kindness and generosity which is unexpected but gratefully received.

When I was younger, a lot younger, we would often leave gifts for people who ‘served’ us. We’d leave something out for the postman (when they came six days a week), or the milkman (who delivered milk each weekday), on Christmas. Our kids would deliver cookies to their teacher to celebrate or congratulate specific events. I wasn’t sure if this still happened, but now I know it does.

And it doesn’t matter if the Easter egg idea was a suggestion from their parents, or if they decided to do it themselves. The main thing is that it was done and both the gifters and the giftee feel good about it and will continue to feel good about it for weeks or months ahead.

This little act of kindness, in a world grappling with so many issues and problems restored my faith in kindness. Small things can make a huge difference.

Let’s all try to do the same.

Final words:

Subscriber numbers are up to 531. Thank you to everyone who’s taking the time to be interested in my life as a bus driver.

I spent Easter weekend in Auckland with friends and family. Last night as I traveled home in a cab from Wellington Airport I smiled and thought: “Yay. I get to go to work on Tuesday. I can’t wait!”

See you on the bus soon.