By: Brenda Wilkerson
Driving an elementary bus of giggly wiggly children isn’t all fun and games. There are those days that my nerves seem to be fragile and raw. On this particular day, I am admittedly a bit grumpy. I tried all my tricks to get the rambunctious mob behind me mostly under control. We sang all of our songs, chanted the old McDonald’s ‘Big Mac’ chorus, etc. Nothing. Nada. Still no control and the volume was wayyyy over the normal acceptable level. And then it happened. I declared, “Quiet ride,” over the mic. The kids knew they had pushed me to my limit and must now endure excruciating silence for a short time. If that 5 minutes of (somewhat) silence cannot be achieved, then we all have earned an entire route of no talking – which is always sweet music to my weary ears.
Welp, as this day would have it, a lower decibel was not achievable. There was the obnoxious, you know, fake sneezes here followed by a cough-laugh there and the low murmur of children talking ducked down behind seats. I was desperately trying to ignore all that but this day, I felt myself creeping toward that ‘mean/ugly bus driver’ condition.
Somehow, I kept it all in check and exercised deep breathing, prayer, and a ‘let it go’ mentality. Ahhhh, Jesus took the wheel and I was feeling better. And then it happened. I glanced up in the huge rearview mirror briefly to monitor the squirmy bus family behind me, and there I saw it. One. Single. Bubble… slowly floating up and throughout our large yellow cab. After all of my behavior management cards were laid out on the table, and I THOUGHT I had finally gained some control. But, someone bravely decided to challenge the cranky bus driver and take their own life, and the lives of each child riding the bus, into their small little hands by secretly taking out a plastic vile of bubble solution, unscrewing the top, pulling out the wand, holding it close to their lips, and meticulously blowing the perfect single bubble. When my eyes locked on that innocent bubble, in that very moment, I had a big decision to make in a nanosecond — A. Completely lose it or B. Laugh.
I wisely chose B. We laughed. Yes we did! It was then that I inwardly thanked the good Lord for my job and these bus babies. I finally gave in and accepted the bus chatter which became less and less as each kid departed. Thank you Jesus for the sporadic bubbles in our lives that keep us from taking ourselves too seriously.
~Brenda
By: Brenda Wilkerson
May 16, 2025
