What is a ‘good’ person?

Yeah, I know you are all chomping at the bit for my GNP 2024 content, but I have a real-time experience that I wanted to share. Take it for what it is worth. 🙂

I’m on the front side of 60 years old, and while I’m not crossing that finish line anytime soon, I can still see the ribbon in the distance wavering in that invisible wind that only happens at high school track meets.

So during my daily routine of driving a school bus, I’m confronted with a very real-life magnitude question: What constitutes a ‘good’ person? I start to wonder. Why haven’t I asked myself this before?

I drive all ages of students on the school bus, both in the morning and afternoon. Middle school is always the most challenging. These kids climb on the bus loaded with technology, screens, and (thankfully) earbuds and think they know everything about the world. But we all did at that age.

I love it when I’m asked if I was in WWII. And smile at how the public education system has egregiously failed yet another generation. But that is for another blog post.

So when my ‘mean girls’ finally made good on the nickname I had given them, I smiled. A clique of 4-5 sixth graders, all new to my bus this fall, all at the same stop. It was just a matter of time until a group bullying event happened. And I LOVE giving School Bus Life Lessons. Full Shock and Awe. No half measures.

I wish they were teasing the boy with the long mullet for… well, having a mullet. But no. They went with lice. It got bad enough that the student came to me.

I have zero tolerance for bullying. Given that I have a stutter, I was brutally bullied as a child. Back when it wasn’t just a troll on the internet, but very personal, hateful, in your face. Even after fifty years, that childhood pain, helplessness, and misery still stings.

So yes. I go Full Metal Jack on fifty middle school kids and drive it home with Thor’s Hammer. Well, as much as you can on a school bus with an HD digital camera and full audio.

My expectations were clearly enunciated, heard, and understood. The ‘mean girls’ got an extra dose when the bus was cleared, and left knowing I would assign each a seat at least two away from all of their other friends through the 8th grade if needed.

So where is this story going? Well, remember, I am a storyteller.

The next day, after all of this, a student gave me a note when she exited the bus in the morning. I usually get a note from a student only when they have a guest rider coming home with them. This was not that.

The note read: 

“I am so sorry for what I did. I should not have made fun of (Student X).

I feel horrible for that. I will work hard to be a better person in all. This will not happen again.

I should have been a better person and stood up for him and tell them to stop. I feel like a horrible person.

The way that I thought that was ok is terrible. I’m really sorry again.”

 

 

There was a lot to unpack. Emotionally. At least for me. I took a day to think it over. And then, during the morning drop-off, I pulled her aside (yes, in clear view of the cameras with audio). Holding up her note, I said:

“(Student X)

Thank you for this note. I appreciate the courage it took to write.

Know that you are a ‘good’ person, as a ‘horrible’ person could not have written this.

A ‘good’ person makes daily mistakes, acknowledges them, and learns.

A ‘good’ person wants to be the best version of themself every day, and a better one tomorrow.

Always remember this day, and what it feels like to be a ‘good’ person.”

 

Yeah. So it took a 12-year-old to make me ask the question I should have been asking my whole life: “What is a good person?”

The same 12-year-old made me say out loud (thus making it real) the answer I have known my entire life: “Be the best you, every day and always, regardless of what the world throws at you.”

And the irony? This student was not part of the ‘mean girl’ clique—she was just on the fringes, caught up in trying to be cool.

I smile when I see a moral compass like that in today’s youth—something you will only see if you drive a school bus. The gems might be few and far between, but I’ll drive endless hours to find them. They are worth each minute at the wheel. Trust me.

BusBoy…. out. 🙂