I’ve worked off and on throughout my life, and I’ve held different types of jobs. I was a dental technician in the Air Force. I’ve worked at Meijer in the toy department. I’ve done custodial work. I worked for two years as a teacher at a Christian school, but the most daring job I ever held was at a local bus company. I knew the owners because they were faithful members of my church. So when they mentioned needing a bus monitor, I thought, “I could use a little income and they could use a bus monitor.” So I applied.
As a bus monitor, I took care of the preschoolers we bussed to school for the Head Start program. My job was to help teach them how to secure their seat belts and harnesses, as well as how to get out of them. I helped the children buckle up. I kept order on the bus, which meant I often played peacemaker between two children at odds with one another. I interacted with the children. I’d talk to them or sing with them. I frequently checked and double checked their harnesses and buckles to ensure they were properly strapped in, especially when they buckled themselves in. Whenever possible, I sat while the bus was moving, but I usually didn’t sit for very long and I frequently heard my name called from the other side of the bus “Miss Marj!”
Now I don’t have good balance. (If you missed it, read last week’s blog entry.) So what did I do? I landed a job working on a moving bus. Smart. Now you can say what you want, but I loved that job. I loved the kids. I loved helping the driver in all I did. I worked hard to be the best bus monitor I could be.
I called my mom out in California and told her that I got a job working as a bus monitor. She said to me, “Good for you, Marjie.” That meant she didn’t know what a bus monitor did. She didn’t ask and I didn’t tell her. She would have had a fit if she realized that I was walking up and down a moving bus at my job.
Then one day my daughter, Jamie, said to me, “Mom, Fairfield City Schools is hiring substitute educational assistants. And they’re always in need of substitutes. You should check into it.”
My first thought was that I already had a job – one that I thoroughly enjoyed. And if anything, I was looking for fewer hours, not more; time to prepare my Sunday school lesson, time to work on my blog and the Lord’s Page, time to write and market my book. And I hated the thought of letting others down – my friends who owned the company, the driver I rode with… Then it occurred to me, I’m now in my 50s and the older I got, the easier I lost my balance. Because of that, I was actually a liability to the company. All it would take for me to fall was for the bus to hit one well-timed speed bump. And in one apartment complex alone, we crossed 16 speed bumps. In considering my job, I thought it might be wise to retire from this position undefeated (without having taken a fall), so I applied at the city schools and was accepted. So as not to leave the bus company scrambling to replace me at the last minute, I worked until the Christmas break.
I had a hard time leaving and wondered if I was making the right decision. Then the last day, three different drivers whom I’d ridden with on separate occasions, all said to me at different times, “You made me nervous on the bus. I was afraid you might fall.” Then I knew I’d made the right decision.