I always feel late on my way to work. I think it’s because I wake up with a hopeful plan that has to keep changing. Depending on the day, I leave somewhere on this continuum:

I’ll leave before 7! I’ll get so much done this morning! I could even have time to stop for coffee for us and get work done!
I’ll leave right at 7, and there’s still time before the coffee line is too long!
Okay, I’ll leave at 7:10, no coffee but still at work to do some work.
If I leave before 7:20, I can still do the one thing I need to do before the kids arrive.
If I leave right at 7:30, I won’t get stuck behind that school bus.
If I get stuck behind that school bus, I’ll just have to do my best.
Go with the flow, Ona.

Recently I came to an intersection, and watched a college student run to a bus stop. I looked at the bus stop where the bus rocked a bit, and I worried this was not going to go well.

The way I invested in this story…

I watched him run.
I watched the bus start.
I watched him slow down as he realized that he was not making this particular bus.
I wondered what the bus schedule was. Would he be able to make his class on time? Does another bus come soon enough? Will his professor understand?
My empathy might need a check up.

This week it happened again, at a different bus stop.
I saw a college student running. He hopped on the bus, but then I noticed, as I was going through the roundabout, another student, farther away. He was running too, even faster. His backpack was bouncing and he was determined! I looked in my rear view mirror as I passed the bus, hoping to not see it drive away yet, knowing the student was too far away.

I watched him run.
I watched the bus remain.
I can’t tell for certain, but I think that bus waited!
I think that student got on the bus.
The last thing I saw through my rear view mirror was the bus still there, and the runner disappear behind the bus.

It really gave me hope that day.