The Bus

It was just another normal Friday. Some adventure would make it a bit interesting. So, my friend and I went out of the campus to look for some urban air. As usual, we travelled by bus as it is the only available transport for student like us and it suit our pocket best. If we opt to go by cab, it would cost us lunch for a week which was not what we wanted to.

                The bus was early today, which was good. But here came the problem. The bus was extremely packed that I imagined if it was a man, it would purge the excess content – including me. But luckily enough, the bus was just a bus. So, I could still stay inside it even though I had to stand up for a quarter of the journey and had to wait for some passengers to get off to have some space to sit.

We swayed to the left and then to the right as the bus went through the corner. We couldn’t stand straight as we need to get prepared for the worse. The bus kept us hanging to the nearest iron bar where ever we can find to keep us stable.

                Standing shoulder to shoulder with the other passengers was not a very comfy feeling. The worse circumstance was when the people standing next to you didn’t practice consideration. They chatted out loud, laughed and screamed as though the bus was wholly theirs. It’s hard to control the annoyance level at this point of time. I felt as though I would want to shoo them out of the bus every time the bus stopped at the other passengers’ call. But, I just kept it to myself because I still have got my manners.

                The journey continued. Halfway, half of the passengers had reached their destination. So, we could breathe well a bit. But it doesn’t last long. The bus stopped again to welcome another passenger. The four ladies that didn’t look familiar got in the bus. Their look were distinct then the rest of us in the bus. They were foreigners. Not that blue-eyed type, not also the super-sharp nose. They were neither to fair, nor to dark. Probably they were somewhere in the middle. They were brown and smell strange too. Very much like the Asean. And they spoke languages that I concluded to be Vietnamese as it sounded like Thai a little bit.  

                To be frank, at first I was constrained by my judgment. I felt superior over them as though I belonged to a better society class in comparison to them. By the way they dress up, I concluded that they were labor here in our country. Therefore, I felt somehow proud of my country, of myself that I was better than them. If I could see the look that I put on my face, I believed it to be a condemning look. A boastful look. A look that wrote “I’m better than you!” on my face.

                But then something went straight to my mind that made me realized of who I am. I am just a small girl with not-so-pretty look, and very plain. How on earth I dare thought that I was better than those four ladies that I shared this public transportation with? If I was that better, why am I travelling by this bus not by my own sport car or jet plane? Suddenly, I felt ashamed of myself. I couldn’t believe that I was actually being judgmental towards others as though I was perfect enough. Then I came to realize that love knows no boundaries. Everyone desired to be loved. No matter what race you come from, how different you look like or whatever your social status is, you are just one person that lives in this huge universe. We wanted to love and to be loved. That’s the simplest rule of human lives. Love.  

                 Human beings are all the same. Short or tall, skinny or plump, cute or ugly, pretty or plain, fail or successful, dark or fair, rich or poor, smell nice or smell bad, we are just the same. Our genes showed that we were difference but the reality is we are equally the same. Everyone deserves to be loved regardless their look and background because in God’s eyes human beings are all the same.

                I was reminded of something in the bus today. And my heart smiled as the four Vietnamese ladies left the bus in their cheerful mood.

“We are just the same,” I thought to myself.