Wrong Mike

     It happens every year at the start of school. New bus drivers have so much to learn and being responsible for 40 to 60 kids can seem overwhelming. Without fail, you will hear someone who is new come on the two way radio that connects all the drivers with the dispatch office. "Kids sit down" "Quiet down Please" (not always said that nicely.) Then one of the other drivers comes on the radio and says, "Wrong Mike!"
     Now here is the rest of the story. Every school bus has two radios:  A two way radio that connects us to the dispatch office and to the other drivers. Also, a bus speaker that is run through the AM FM radio. This radio has a toggle switch so we can speak to the kids inside the bus or outside the bus.            Personal confession: More than once, I have found myself driving down the road with the radio playing on the outside speaker. Oops!  I have also tried to tell the kids standing outside the bus that they could cross the street only to have them look at me like a deer in the headlights. Then I figure out that I haven't hit the switch and I am talking to the kids inside the bus. At that point I usually just wave at them to cross.
     There is a funny story about using the wrong mike that happened to a driver that he still has not lived down to this day. Seems he was trying to engage the kids so they would settle down. He picked up the mike and begin to sing with the intention of getting the kids to sing along. What he ended up doing was singing to all the other drivers. Very embarrassing. I must say that I think his intentions were good and I appreciate his resourcefulness, but not all the bus drivers did. These days he tends to try to use the radio as little as possible. Even if nobody tells you that you have the wrong mike, you figure it out eventually because what you wanted to happen does not happen. It is an easy mistake to make.
     So, what do I think we can learn from this? In my analogy, the mike represents the action or method we are using to accomplish our goals or purpose. Sometimes, like the bus drivers, we need to stop and examine if what we are doing is accomplishing what we want. One prerequisite, however, is that we have to know what we want. If you don't have any dreams or goals, any mike will work. But if you have a goal, you have to keep making sure you are using the mike that will make that happen. Between my junior and senior year in high school I and my dad agreed that I would paint our two- story house. I like to paint but I hated all the scraping and sanding that had to be done to make the house ready to paint. Painting the house took way longer than it should have because I would take a break and end up watching one or two or three TV shows. I was using the wrong mike. As I get older, time gets more precious and I don't want to be wasting my time doing things that don't have a purpose. Don't misunderstand me, naps have a purpose. Anyway, I wanted to encourage myself and others to make sure you don't have the wrong mike. Just a thought
Next week I have more bus stories and I will tell you one thing I really like about being a bus driver.
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