Friday, September 25, 2009

My New Job

It all began back in March 2009 when I took Gabby in for Kindergarten registration. After speaking with the school Nurse and Principal, I made my way over to the table where the Director of Transportation was sitting. When I sat down he explained a few things about the schedules for Kindergarten and then mentioned that they were looking for school bus drivers and asked if I would be interested. Without hesitation I replied, "Sure, I could do that", and five months later, here I am.

It was a lengthy process and a very hot one. You are required to complete 14 hours of class room training and 20 hours of in-bus training. By time I was ready to start the in-bus training, it was summer time and for those of you who haven't been on a school bus lately, there is no air conditioning.

The first day of in-bus training, my wonderful trainer Donna, put me behind the wheel of the 40', 14 1/2 ton bus and told me to drive. I had zero, zip, zilch, experience driving a bus with a manual transmission. The last time a drove a stick shift was probably about 20 years ago in a compact car that I taught myself how to drive. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous...okay, a lot nervous. Amazingly, I did it without taking out any street signs or hitting any curbs.

In the end, all of my training on those hot summer days paid off because I passed my test and now I'm ready to drive a bus. Maybe now I'll have more time to do what is most important...blog.






5 comments:

Jan n Jer said...

Congratulations in getting your CDL license. And now the fun begins...driving all those cute little kiddies and some not so cute to school and home everyday.

Living Life said...

Congratulations! That is a great accomplishment! Something I would have never done!

Colleen C said...

Congrats Tracy! That's awesome. I have 2 friends who drive a school bus and they love it! I was actually thinking about doing that myself, but with a 2 1/2 year old and a 10 month old, I think I'll wait. I'd hate to have my Mom come over to babysit that early in the morning. Keep us posted!

Anonymous said...

Congrats. Tracy. Now be careful out there, watch out for the other guy! Be a safe driver & protect all those 'nice' kiddies from each other.
This job can be a habit and some folks do it forever.
jlg

Driftwood and Pumpkin said...

Congratulations! Brenda, Brian's mom used to do that! I don't know how she reached the pedals! LOL!