The Time Our Bus Broke Down
Originally published on May 14th, 2017
Okay, so technically it just overheated. Still, on the journey home from my school's music tour, we found ourselves at a somewhat deserted gas station for about four hours. We left our hotel at around 10:00 in the morning, and after our first rest stop, the bus had to stop a second time because it was overheating. We were stuck on the side of the road for about half an hour, and then the bus driver decided it was okay and we could keep going. About an hour later, however, she stopped again, this time saying the bus was leaking coolant and was too overheated to continue. We were on the side of the road again for about 45 minutes to an hour, and, I'm not going to lie, about half way through I started to get frustrated. I was texting with my mom and kept thinking about how all I wanted was to just be home in my own room in my own bed. Finally, we began to drive incredibly slowly for about a mile until we reached that somewhat deserted gas station I mentioned earlier.
Since the music department at my school is so large, we had to take two busses. Because only one of those busses was overheated (the one I was on), some of the people were able to continue on home. The rest of us, however, were stuck. We were given money to get food at the gas station, and then told to stay congregated around the overheated bus.
After we got food, I found myself sitting with a group of people on the pavement looking out at the sunset. All things considered, the situation wasn't actually that bad. A mechanic was on their way to fix the old bus, and a new bus was on it's way to pick us up and take us home. Still, we were stuck in the middle of the central valley with no concrete idea of when the new bus was going to arrive. Even so, I ended up sitting with a group of people singing and laughing for the four hours we were stuck. At one point, I just kind of sat back and looked out at all the people who were there. We were all in our little groups, but at the same time we were all still together in a way. The bus overheating and our gas station dinner wasn't expected, and it wasn't necessarily what any of us had planned on doing. Still, we made the best out of the situation. Some people had ukuleles, playing cards, and fully charged phones, so we definitely weren't bored.
I love my school, and this is one of the reasons why. We were able to turn an unfortunate experience into one of the best moments of the entire tour. The songs we sang, the laughs that escaped, and the mutual joy we all had when we saw that new bus pull up made me realize just how happy I am that I moved and came to this new school. It's crazy how the oddest circumstances can show us how happy we are to be somewhere, but it's definitely the truth. The people that you're surrounded by can make or break an experience, and in this case I was with some really cool people. I got really lucky this year, even if I was one of the people who had to stay and wait for the new bus ;-).
Yes I am aware that I've posted this before, but it's the only one I took while we were there :-)