Dec 11, 2018 3 min read

When I was a school-aged child, I had the idea that only the cool kids sat in the back of the school bus. I remember climbing aboard that big yellow vehicle at the beginning of each school year and choosing a seat nearer to the back than the year before.

I would slink into a seat and hope that the older kids didn’t yell that I wasn’t allowed back there. If the first week or so passed and no one had demanded I shift forward, it was a safe assumption that I had secured a seat for the year, and by doing so, had gained a slightly higher social status.

You see, all the best stories were told in the last four or five rows. Romances were kindled back there. Friendships were tested, broken, and repaired – all in the course of a day. To know what happened in the back of the bus was to be somebody – at least it was to a nobody girl who came from nothing.

I even think this idea may still be pervasive, but I no longer agree with it.

This is due, in large part, to riding a charter bus for several hours last week. You see, I had the opportunity to travel to Lancaster with my sister-in-law’s church to see a play at the Sight and Sound Theater. (Words cannot describe how amazing this production was, so I will say nothing except it was worth every penny of the ticket price.)

What I will say is that I enjoyed my conversations with my sister-in-law immensely. We don’t have occasion to talk as often as we’d like, but we got fully caught up during our trip. I heard how both my niece and nephew attended school dances and how my nephew got a deer for the freezer. I shared that my son was chosen as his school’s Student of the Month for December, and how my daughter received an award for excelling in her welding program. We laughed and talked for the entire four-hour ride to the theater.

We did both struggle a little with the actual ride, however. We were only four seats from the back of the bus, and while we didn’t expect any romances to be sparked among the church folk in attendance, we also didn’t feel very “cool.” If we’re telling the truth, we didn’t feel very good at all.

Did you know that the back of a bus rocks and sways like a ship? I mean pitching around like there’s 100-foot waves. I tried, at one point, to make it the seven feet to the bathroom, and nearly sat in every lap between point A and point B.

On the way home, my sister in law resorted to a couple Dramamine, and I sat in absolute silence with my eyes closed and my head pressed into the seat in front of me. When we finally disembarked, I was a bit nauseous and somewhat overheated.

I felt much better almost immediately, and even stifled the urge to yell “LAND!” while walking to my car.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.