My first day of high school

My first day of high school was only memorable because of a conversation I had with my mother. We lived on the other side of the city from the then only Catholic high school (I am not Catholic) to which it was necessary for me to take a city bus to attend. At the time the city bus route that went right past the school also went right past our house with a bus stop right in front of the house. My mother jokes now that she told me to get on the bus and wherever it took me was where I would go to school.

Anyway, my mother told me that once school let out that the first bus would be at 10 minutes to 3pm and school let out at 3:45pm so I had to hustle to catch it. Well, I missed it and didn't know what to do since I had never used public transit before. My elementary school was across the street during the years I attended. Using a payphone to phone home, no cell phones back then, I told my mom that I had missed the bus. Not even a pause before my mother burst out "Well get your ass back to the bus stop, there's another one coming in 5 minutes."

This was a revelation and a turning point for me. I learned to listen closer, she did tell me the first bus which indicates there would be others. It also taught me to be more proactive and ask questions ahead of time instead of in the situation. But I was only 14 and now I can see how absent minded those people are. Now that the tables are turned and I'm the one with a teenager using the public transit to not only go back and forth to school but to also go to doctor's appointments and hang out with friends, I know what it's like to get a text (now that there are cell phones) asking where to go. I have more patience than my mother and the same potty mouth.