Prose

I stepped on the school bus today and I was transported back in time to being a teenager and remembered everything I hated about being at school ( fortunately I lived locally and did not have to travel by bus ), but some things, though now have mellowed, have not changed at all since my school days.

On the rare occasions I share the bus with a bunch of children, always many shopping bags arranged around the fold down seat, ( done deliberately so no one sits next to me, and I always wonder how I am going to actually get off the bus one handed, but I always manage. ) On such journeys, I wander into reverie, watch the fields, observe what is occupying them, look at the hedgerows, just about anything but the noise on the bus; yet, they don't bother me and I don't bother them, I remember being that age. However, certain little things have never changed. I am an observer of patterns, patterns that have never changed. I try to shut off but you hear the "loudmouths", the same language that always existed, "you sit there", or, " you are not one of the cool kids", it now seems cooler to be on the bottom half of the bus than the top, in my day it was the opposite.

I was a nanny for years and I understand children's and teenager's behaviour but it isn't always very nice, and probably very diluted in the case of other circumstances, yet it still exists and you can see the people who are controlling and the ones who obey a mile off. This is early on, probably most is banter, but there is a rather subtle element there.
This may seem unrelated to my previous comment, and to some extent it is entirely, and to some extent it is not at all. but you can see subtle behaviour which in some cases grows into something more bitter. Anything fore mentioned is not my point here, but there are elements in people's personalities which make you think, and I think we should all think and open our eyes, because we don't.

People on the internet can be extremely vicious, beyond measure, and it is becoming a free world for many. Bullying takes many forms and it often begins where you least expect it. For me it was school.

In all fairness, my local school bus has nice kids, and I always sit opposite a nice young man who is very polite and helped me with my seat. There is nobody who is not nice, but I'm not going to retract that certain people are bossier than others and it doesn't always feel right.

I grew used to being controversial and not always liked ages ago, so I am not being directly critical of anyone, I just can't stand bullies.

Everything starts on a small level. Never let them do it to you.