An Everyday Hero

Every morning I get up in the freezing cold to go to school. I drive the same way and listen to the same radio stations. I park in one of the farthest lots and take a shuttle into Main Campus (yes, we're almost as cool as Disneyland). Getting on the shuttle can sometimes be a problem because it fills so quickly. If you're there at about 7:45 you can probably get a seat, but when we pull out at 7:50 all seating and standing room is taken, and we pull out of the parking lot.

My purpose in writing this is not to bore you out of your mind with the trivial affairs of my life, rather, it is to set the background for An Everyday Hero.

I've only seen him twice on the shuttle when I ride it. Maybe he gets there earlier and takes the previous shuttle. The first time I saw him he climbed on the bus and took a seat. As the shuttle began to fill he looked around anxiously and then settled back in. A girl took one of the last seats and a couple of guys walked on and stood holding the bars above their heads. Just then, a young lady stepped up the stairs and looked around for a seat. When she couldn't find one she simply stood where she was and reached up for the bar above her head. It didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary to me, just a normal day on the shuttle.

Suddenly, the young man next to me stood up and graciously offered the young lady his seat.

What happened next surprised me even more than him offering his seat. I saw other young men on the bus getting our of their seats, offering them to the nearest young lady. He had started a chain reaction.

What a man. I don't think I've meet one in such a long time (with the exception of a few of my very gentlmanly friends). I was pleasantly surprised. I don't think he'll ever know it, but to me, that day he was a hero.

It doesn't end there. This morning I woke up, ran through freezing temperatures to my freezing car, which I then drove to the school. I ran to the shuttle and sat down, eager to be out of the cold. The bus filled and he got on just before we pulled out. There were a lot of girls standing, but he was standing as well, so he couldn't do anything about it. At our first stop we dropped off quite a few people and a seat cleared next to me. He sat down, but only after he had checked to make sure no girl was standing. Just then, just as he had sat down, another passenger boarded the shuttle. It was a young lady. And what did our friend do? He could have easily sat back thinking, "Well, I just sat down and we really aren't going that far". But he didn't. Up he popped, out of his seat offering it to her.

Even if no one else noticed, he was a hero to me.