“Far

We’ve been traveling far

Without a home

But not without a star

Free

Only want to be free

We huddle close

Hang on to a dream…”

                Neil Diamond

There’s something about the sight of a yellow school bus making its way down the morning street that tugs at my heart.   On board is the curious mix of faces peering down from their high perch.  In that moment, you can’t help but recall that mix of hope and anxiety that marked the beginning of a school day.  And there is something about that September bus ride that is different from the one in June.  September is filled with high expectations and hopes. The squeak of new shoes.   The still starched white shirt. The unfrayed book bag loaded with promise.  A new pencil case filled with the scent of freshly shaved wood. Its row of sharpened pencils pointed for the challenges and the unknowns of the year ahead.

In my memory, the bus is that familiar yellow, but its color really does not matter.  What does matter is the symbol as it winds down the road making its way from one end of town to the other.  It picks up kids from all walks of life. Some who wait at the ends of tree lined country lanes, some who wait in front of stately gated houses, and some in small crowded row houses in the center of town

I taught at a county agricultural high school for many years where students came from every corner of the county.  They arrived on different buses after a long and tedious ride.  They entered together into a building that welcomed all of them with their different ideas and beliefs and varied ways of expression.  They came to become a better version of themselves in a place where this expression is encouraged.  A school is where the teacher, a chemist of sorts, must carefully balance the ideas of the past along with the new.  The American school, a symbol of that great melting pot that writer de Crevecoeur once described so many centuries ago. The place where people of all countries come together to form that one ideal – the American.  It is an old idea that still rings true about a place where anything is possible, and for that we can thank the school bus.

When you see one of those school buses swaying down the road with its load of expectant faces shining down, give them a wave and a high five.  Though they may not realize it at the moment, they are doing the hard work of keeping the American Dream alive.