Making the move from Carlisle to Toulouse comes with many changes, especially when it comes to transportation. Let’s face it; you can pretty much walk from Hanover Street to the Carlisle Diner in less than 20 minutes. Here in France, public transportation is a huge way of life for anyone who wants to get around. Not a day goes by that I don’t use the metro or the bus system. But, when you’ve got places to go, you’ve also gotta wait. I can’t tell you how many hours so far I’ve spent waiting for the bus to arrive. Waiting isn’t all bad though. I get most of my best thinking done while standing at the bus stop. Let me share some thoughts with you.

I like to lump all of my Bus Stop Thoughts into two categories: the insignificant and the significant. Some examples of insignificant Bus Stop Thoughts are:

“Silly pigeon, why would you walk in the middle of the street where there are cars driving? Don’t you know to look both ways first?”

“Which kind of crêpe is the supreme overlord of all the crêpes: Nutella banana or Nutella strawberry?” or…

“I CAME IN LIKE AWREEECKING BAAAAALL!”

Like its name suggests, the significant Bus Stop Thoughts are much more important. For example, sometime there are a large number of people waiting for the same bus. If it is nighttime, when the buses come less frequently, the wait becomes much longer. This large group of people can be seen scattered around the bus stop; some standing, others sitting on a ledge and a few leaning casually against the brick buildings which made Toulouse famous. When I find myself in one of these situations, I think to myself, “Where are all of these people going? Are they going home? Do they have families to return to? Are they just getting off work? Did they have a good day today?” You may not think it so, but it is at times like these when I consider standing at the bus stop to be intimate.

The bus stop is a place of convergence. All of you waiting are strangers; you live in difference houses, have different friends, and maybe even speak different languages. It is completely possible that you would never cross paths with any of these people, but you are at the bus stop. All of you are at the same exact place for a moment in time, in order to go somewhere new. It’s kind of beautiful.

While you may not have a bus stop at which to wait in Carlisle, take a moment to think about others anyway.