On The Way to School

Running late does have it's advantages; I'm glad to have gotten to have an interesting conversation with a stranger this morning.

As usual, I was walking to my bus stop, on my way to school, when an ambulance passed by, causing the traffic lights to be set back. I walked watched the bus drive past me as I lazily crossed the road, and noticed a man sitting on the bus stop bench. I recognized this man from my bus everyday, and it seems he was running late today as well.

He looked down and upset, then saw me approach, and so I smiled and greeted him. To my surprise, his face lit up and said hi back. He said this has not been a good morning for him because he was suppose to pick up his daughter from his ex-wife's house, and now he was late because of the ambulance. He told me about how he wasn't able to meet his family's expectations in the past years since his divorce, and they have been looking down on him ever since; He said it was nice to have someone to talk to about this.

He was scared of letting his daughter down, as she is probably waiting for him now, anxious and worried. As we got on the later bus which came shortly after, he got off before me, and thanked me for listening to him.

It feels good to be able to have helped make someone's day that much better. Sometimes a simple gesture does make a difference.