By: Brenda Wilkerson
Nobody that I know of has had to consider the mood of finality inside the school bus on the very last day of school. The younger ones are giddy and squirrelly while the fifth graders try to drink it all in. Some board for the last time with Kleenex in hand and puffy eyes struggling with the decision for quiet reflection or to fully commit to living out these last moments together.
All ages reflect with the finality of the last day as a bus family. At one pivotal moment somewhere in the belly of the bus, deeply embedded within the 49 children, came a petite but powerful voice wailing our mood in her heavy voice… “Mamaaaaa, oooooooooh, didn’t mean to make you cry. If I’m not back again this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters…to meeeeeee…”
Immediately, we all seemed to morph into li’l old grannies in a backroad country church fanning ourselves in the summer heat nodding in agreement and offering ‘Amens’ of the melodic heartfelt truth! Somehow…some way, this innocent voice with perfect vibrato crooning “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is exactly what this elementary school bus family needed to soothe our souls in that very moment.
Lord, I started this year begging for your guidance to see and love the ones you put before me. The end-of-year prayers are just as intense but very different. I pray this servant did what was required of this school year. Some of these kids, I won’t ever see again but I pray that when they think of me they see and feel you. Thank you for trusting me with your little ones for a short amount of time. May we all finish as well as we begin.
~Brenda Wilkerson
