Musings at Altitude

I’ve been home for over two weeks now, the first time this has happened in almost 3 years!  I’ve taken advantage of being home to catch up on some of those parenting opportunities I’ve missed over the years…one of which is taking my 14 year old to the bus stop.  Now, I consider myself a monitor of human behavior – not nearly as good as my wife, but fairly good when compared to the general population.  And I’d like to make some observations about this bus stop:

(1) there are typically six teenagers that board the bus at this particular stop

(2) of those six, three are girls and three are boys

(3) of the three girls, none of them talk to each other

(4) of the three boys, two of them seem to be close friends

As the time approaches for the bus to show up, all six appear at the bus stop at about the same time every morning.  When they walk up to the bus stop, they always wait as follows:

I hope you can see this!  On one side of the street, three teenagers line up, always perfectly spaced at about 12-15 feet apart.  On the other side of the street, two of the teenage boys always hang out at the corner together, and then my 14 year old walks up about 3-4 feet from them, and every now and then says “hi”.

The thing that amazes me most is how consistent this is over this entire two week period.  Using some form of extrapolation, I can only conclude that at this particular bus stop this behavior of separating in geometrically similar spacing will continue this entire school year.  But I can also conclude that my 14 year old will be the irritant in the comfort zones of those other teenagers.  She’s already been known to walk up to the two boys and intrude on their conversations.  It won’t be long before those two boys realize that my 14 year old is probably just a bit more interesting at that age than the Ipods or other distractions that they currently possess.  It also won’t be long before my overly social yet introverted daughter will befriend one of those three on the other side of that road, and it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if it was the guy which always stands on the far right in the picture.

As I sit here pondering the bus stop, I think back to my high school years and I realize that I would have been one of those standing by myself, actively focused on my own special world.  My 14 year old though is so very different than I was when I was her age.  She’s incredibly comfortable in just about any social environment, and she’s befriended and makes friends quickly once eye contact is made.  For now, I cherish the fact that she sits in the car talking to me till the bus arrives.  When she does get out, she walks up and listens in on the conversation of the two guys on her side of the street, and each and every time they acknowledge her presence and say something typically stupid of teenage boys.   My prediction is that within weeks, we’ll have three teenagers on this side of the street actively chatting each other up waiting on the bus, and we’ll have three others with perfect separation on the opposite side of the street.  If by chance my 14 year old ends up sitting on the bus next to one of those teenagers on the other side of the street, I bet that very next day, the three over there will become four, and two will be perfectly separated while the other two will be actively chatting. 

The law of the bus stop states that unless you are good friends, you will wait quietly with perfect separation every day.  The second law of the bus stop states that for every six teenagers waiting at the bus stop, one will always be a law breaker.  At this particular bus stop, my 14 year old is and always will be the law breaker!