Bus # 1 (Downtown).

I visited the graduation coordinator today, and I'm not graduating this semester. Not much else to say. Got on the bus. Felt glum, angry, disappointed. Almost cried. I need 7 more credits. 7 more stupid credits! I never want to set foot on that stupid campus again. (People shouldn't feel this way about their school, but I do. UF hasn't been much more than one giant money-sucking black hole. I wish I could start all over again, do things differently, yadda yadda. I would have gotten to know my teachers better, I would have lived in a dorm, I would have gone to more than 2 academic advising appointments.)

Oh well. No time to look backward.

Something in my unconsolable gloom drove me to sit near the very back corner of the bus, where I held my backpack on my lap and laid my head on it in a physical expression of my wish to avoid the world.

I didn't realize that the seat I chose was next to a group of gospel singers. "'I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold! Ooooooooh yea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ssssss, I'd rather have JE-s-uu-uus, than silver or goooooooold.' I Praise the lord, brother ,I send up praise, God, for Jesus! Hallelujah! Thank you sweet Jesus, thank you, thank you. Oh thank you Jeeeeeesus!"

They were really good. Two girls and a man were singing at the top of their lungs, with all their heart and soul and power and love. They had beautiful voices. "I feel the spirit on this bus, oh lord! I feel the spirit here touching this bus. Praise the lord! I tell you I feel the hand of the lord all up and down this bus right now, sho' 'nuff," the man kept saying, as he waved his hand along the windows. And then they kept on singing, and the one pretty girl said "Oh, you got to stop. I'm gon start to cry, it just so beautiful, just to know... just to know that the lord be right there for you. I'm 'bout to cry, you got to stop!" and she dabbed at her eyes with the corner of her t-shirt.

Of course during this time I'd offered my two cents by raising my head off the pillow to enjoy the music, and asking if they knew any of the songs that I'm learning in choir (they did, but they were VERY different versions). I turned around in my seat to view the proceeding, while the front half of the bus stared straight ahead in their seats.

The back half of the bus continued to sing and tap feet and clap hands, and then the man started preaching and the back of the bus entered into a very intelligent and heartfelt theological discussion about God. When I got off that bus, I felt like I really KNEW those people. I wasn't so upset anymore (there couldn't have been a better day for me to encounter a cheerful, singing group of people). Like the pretty girl who dabbed at her eyes with her t-shirt, I, too, had to hold back fat drops of tears.

"The hand of God is always upon us," the man said. "He use us, you know. He use us to teach each other things we jus got to know," he said. "It might not make no sense to us, but we got to understand that God is always working through us, always working through us. If you don't understand, you got to ask God, 'God, what are you trying to show me, lord?' "

"When you feeling like you can't do nothing, that's when you need to call on the Lord," said another man, who piped up after being silent the entire time. "You got to just start praising the Lord, and then you will see, you will understand, and you will be able to move on," he said, leaning back in his seat.

"That's right," I said. "You'll be filled with the spirit. You've just got to open your heart and let it come."

"Mmmmmhmmm." "Ain't that right!" "That's exactly right." "Yep, you got to turn to him."


There's no other bus in town like Bus Number One, full of characters good and bad.