February 14-17 is Bus Drivers & Bus Assistants Appreciation Week in Comal ISD.
When I was in middle school, our house was the first stop on our bus route. Our bus driver, Mr. Juan, was kind enough to honk and wait at least a minute or two if we weren’t outside when we should have been.
He always had a smile for this grumpy pre-teen, and when he had our high school route too, I was very grateful for the continuity, and his support in making sure I wasn’t late to school like every single day.
His kindness is something I haven’t thought about in years, but as I sat here to write this post, thinking about how every single morning he cared enough to make sure he wasn’t leaving my sister or me behind really resonated. He didn’t have to do any of that, and yet he did. Every day, for years.
We didn’t have an appreciation week for bus drivers like him when I was coming up through school, but I’m so glad to see it’s a thing that we pay attention to in Comal ISD.
In my day job I deal a lot with the logistics surrounding events. I’ve spent way more time than the average human trying to figure out how to move hundreds of people from point A to point B. It can be harrowing, exhausting work — especially the idea that we might accidentally leave someone behind, or cause an event’s timings to be completely off-kilter because of one late bus.
Our bus drivers and assistants deal with that stress every single day. Moving thousands of students across Comal ISD with a smile, enough authority to keep bus noise and activity down to a level safe enough to drive with, and a knowledge of their routes that keeps everything running like a top. That’s not easy!
From my family to yours, thank you, Bus Drivers and Assistants, for making sure that Comal ISD runs on time every single school day.