“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
― Lao Tzu
Celebrating the ‘Holidays’ is a new concept to me and I am embracing it as much as I can. I have been told to compare this time of the year with a festival we celebrate back home in India, ‘Diwali’. We celebrate Diwali by exchanging gifts with near and dear ones. We also reward the people who help make our life easier and better with their services.
In that spirit, I had planned to gift something nice to my daughter’s school bus driver. My daughter, Ishanvi, started formal school this academic year. It has been a journey of learning even for me, trying to adjust myself to the American way of living. Mel, her bus driver, is this lovely young lady who always greets us with a bright smile. So, on Friday, right before Christmas break, I awaited the arrival of her bus with a gift bag beaming with pride, patting myself in my back for adjusting so well, so soon.
To my surprise, when I entered the bus, she herself was ready with a gift bag for my daughter. I accepted it with a smile and was a bit taken aback at this gesture. I simply didn’t know what to do. I got in the bus, with an aim to make her day brighter by offering a gift. Instead, there I was, standing perplexed, trying to buckle up Ishanvi. Mel broke the silence and asked me to open the gift. She was sure Ishanvi would love it.
As soon as my daughter opened it, her face lit up with joy. It contained her favorite animal stuffy. It was a llama.
Mel explained that she went around several stores trying to find a purple llama. Purple is Ishanvi’s favorite color which I may have told her in passing. Mel listened.
My daughter carries a lot of llama stuff since it is her favorite animal. Mel noticed.
I got down from the bus, trying to contain thousands of emotions going through my heart. As parents, you want nothing but the best for your child. The biggest struggle is letting the kids go out for the entire day in the care of people unknown to you at some level. But when those unknown people are like Mel, it takes your worry away. That is the biggest gift she could have given me this Holiday season.
Needless to say, the joy she brought to my little girl, paying attention to what she may like, even making an extra effort, simply touched my heart. When I think of it, she hardly gets to meet my daughter for 5 minutes since school is a short drive from our home. But those 5 minutes were enough for her to know the kid she is driving to school and make her happy. It doesn’t take long for me to realize that my daughter’s bus driver has a kind heart.
I couldn’t help but notice that Mel had several gift bags with her and it wasn’t hard to guess a lot of kids would have been surprised that day.
As I stood in my driveway, watching her bus leave and waving goodbye to Ishanvi, I felt the Holiday Spirit finally hit me. Mel showed me what that is in its true sense-to truly care for someone without expecting anything in return. To show kindness and compassion. Ishanvi will never forget that gesture and neither will I. She carries her ‘Special llama’ everywhere she goes.
We took a month long vacation in January of 2022 and when we came back, Mel was there to welcome Ishanvi at the bus stop first thing in the morning. This time, she decorated her side of the seat and the window with llama stickers and gifted her llama themed activity sheets, right in time for Valentine’s day. As expected, Ishanvi’s joy knew no bounds and Mel did her magic again. The magic of ‘spreading much needed love’.
This is a story of how Mel touched our lives by a simple act of caring.
It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Margaret Mead “ Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”