The 71D Bus Driver

The 71D Bus Driver 

January 21, 2014

Around 6:30pm I got onto a bus headed back downtown. As soon as I entered I showed my ID so I could get my discount since it was after 6. The man was really kind and once I paid, he asked me what year I was. I told him that I was a freshmen and he asked how I was doing with newly living in the city. He asked where I was from originally and what I was doing in school. Then the man told me that his daughter graduated from Point Park 3 years ago. I asked about her major and what she was doing now for a job. He seemed so proud of her and he had good reason to. I learned that his daughter works for hospitals in Pittsburgh and she does organ transplants. I was really interested in what he had to say about her. That made me start to think about wanting to be successful like that when I graduate. We talked the entire ride until I got to my stop. Not a single bus driver has ever talked to me let alone ask how I was doing while I rode the bus, and he would always say hello to everyone that got on. I asked him how long he has been driving a bus for and he said 11 years. He told me about the routes he goes on and the times he likes to work. When I was about to get off, he told me that his goal is to “make people happier than then were before they got on the bus.” He gave me hope in thinking that there are in fact good people left in the world.