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The Wheels on the Bus (continued)
Tiarra.Hall
#1 Posted : Monday, December 11, 2006 9:22:57 AM(UTC)
Tiarra.Hall

Rank: New Next Stepper

Joined: 12/8/2006(UTC)
Posts: 3

.....
A little Latino girl I knew made eye contact with me.
"I sit here?" She asked in a thick accent. She knew I'd say yes, she sat with me almost every day. Today would be no different.
"You no feel good?" She began,after she'd gotten comfortable. Genuine concern could be heard in her voice and if I had been on one of my emotional sprees, I would have cried.
"Just tired," I replied instead, letting the tiredness seep into my bones. No need to fight it now, I was no longer sitting in Trig, or scribbling notes in U.S. History. We bantered for a while; I practiced my Espanol, she practiced her English. After a while we stopped talking period. When she got off of the bus, I stretched my leg into the seat and tried to look nonchalant. No one would think I was lonely. No one would try to fill the vacancy. Soon though, I became uncomfortable so I put my feet back down on the floor and gazed out the window instead. I stared until soon I wasn't even seeing anymore. I vaguely recalled that this was some type of meditation. I didn't think on it very hard though because this feeling of doing nothing was just too good to lose.
I lost it. A bright flash nearly blinded me. I blinked and saw the reflection of our bus in a store shop window. We had stopped at a red light and I was looking into Super Tone, a photography shop on Main Street. It was nice to see familiar faces in the photographs displayed in the windows. I looked back at the reflection and wondered if I could see myself if I looked hard enough. I wondered if I would know myself. Would I recognize my own face like I recognized the smiling people in the photographs, or would I look as forlorn and lost as I felt inside, and thus be unable to?
I hurriedly counted the number of windows that were in front of me and quickly realized my error. What a waste of time that was! I always sat in the third seat, the fact that I was looking at my reflection wouldn't change that. Needless to say by the time I looked back at the window, we were already turning the corner and the image had been lost. More store front windows were around the corner though. The next one looked likea a garage and it had a pretty blue car on display. I lusted after it momentarily. If you have to do without it, don't think about it. I put my concentration back into finding the place where I sat in the windows, playing tag. When we passed the garage-like window I was still "it". Now I was getting a little desperate. Every time I got close to catching myself, we'd pass the window and the reflection would temporarily disappear only to reappear in the next window, somewhat distorted. After this happened over and over again, we finally got off on Main Street. I felt a slight emptiness. I hadn't meant to play so deeply into the game, it wasn't meant to be serious but I couldn't help to think that I hadn't found myself and to slightly wonder what it meant that I hadn't.
The answer came to me instantaneously though. I was losing myself. It was cheesy but it was sort of like a song that I had written earlier that week:
I've got to be real
I can't live a lie
I won't say hello when I really want to say goodbye
.....
.....
I won't get lost in the world
Look around and see that I'm not there...
However I had done just that. I had lost myself in the world. A world of monontony and sameness. I'd lost myself in my school work, in my thoughts, in my love for reading (You could say that I'd been running on "auto-pilot") I had forgotten the rest of me. I'd left the "me" who enjoyed meeting new people and learning new things, making new friends, participaiting in life. I'd gotten lost in a routine like I said I'd never do. Same stuff; different day. I could not find myself and until I moved the fog of sameness, I wouldn't be able to do so.
Yesterday I sat in the fourth seat on the bus. I sprayed perfume in the air before the middle schoolers got on. Yesterday I smiled and no one asked if I felt well. I laughed with Lisa about an inside joke we shared. I greedily snacked on a Take 5 bar I had stashed in my purse that morning. And yesterday, I think I glimpsed myself in a storefront window as we passed through Main Street. I do not doubt that I was smiling.
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