I spend a ridiculous amount of time on the bus every day. My bus picks me up in the morning at 7:30 a.m. and I arrive at school almost an hour later at 8:20 a.m. In the afternoon this trip takes even longer. We leave Rouse at 4 o’clock sharp and head to Wiley, where we sit and wait for middle school children to be released. According to the official time schedule we are supposed to depart Wiley at exactly 4:15 p.m.. This has never happened. We end up leaving, at the earliest, at 4:25 p.m.

Once we have finally left the middle school we head toward the first stops. After this cluster of stops, the bus heads almost into Georgetown to drop off a single student. It then zigzags back to my house, which is located 4.3 miles from Rouse. It is usually between 5:15 and 5:30 by the time I finally make it home. A good two hours after school ends. I then get to do this all again the next day.

The route this bus takes makes no sense to any rational person. It heads in one direction, drops off students, heads in the opposite, drops off one student, then heads back the way it originally went to drop off the last group of students. If the route went in a circle it would not only make more sense, but it would shorten the time until the students arrive at home. 

On the afternoon ride home it’s usually around 100 degrees outside. At this temperature the big yellow bus acts as an oven and cooks the children sitting inside it. Even with the windows down it is still boiling inside. Buses aren’t exactly smooth riders either. They toss you around like a rag doll. By the end of the ride you feel like a mashed up baked potato.