Here's Your Ticket!

During children’s preschool years, it has been a habit of adults to ask the kids what they would want to be when they grow up. Some would say they want to be doctors, other pilots or nurses. I, on the other, would beam and say “I want to be a bus conductor!”. Yes, the one who asks you where you want to go and gives you your ticket and your change. I have always been amazed at their “ticket bundle” which I would learn later in my life as tickets wound together by a rubber band to better facilitate their ticket giving. Oh, how I loved that “ticket bundle”, how I loved the way the bus conductor would flip it so fast, tear out pieces of tickets at random and gives you all sorts of numbered tickets in different colors too. In my obssession, I would collect the used tickets whenever we ride a bus. There were a lot of leftover tickes, some folded and inserted in various locations on the bus like the headrest or the windowpane. My mom would always keep her tickets so that she can give it to me whenever she comes home. Then I would arrange those tickets and pass them to people around the house. Another great thing about the bus conductor is the piece of rubber tied aroung their thumb. Without it, they would have to sometimes lick their thumb first before tearing off the tickets. I thought that the thumb rubber was an excellent idea, so that they wouldn’t have to lick their thumbs and still give out tickets at lightning speed. The thumb rubber came in different colors too, others wore a blue one while others have the green one. The next great thing about the bus conductors is their ability to compute quickly, I have always thought how good they were in math since they can add and subtract mentally. I on the other hand, still had to use pens and papers to do my preschool computations. This became the reason why I persevered in math during those years, I said to myself that I cant’ be a bus conductor if I have poor math skills. Weird enough, I thought that there was such a course as “bus conductoring” as opposed to the usuals like “nursing” or “medicine”. It had to be a Math course which involved fast mental solving and arithmetic prowess. My ultimate practice time for this dream of mine was during those times when all my uncles and aunts would sit in the big sofa in my lolo’s living room. I would go around and ask them “Good morning Sir/Mam, where do you want to go?”. Of course they would play along and pretend to hand me money in exchange for the tickets I kept with me. There were even times when they would hand me actual money and I would fold the bill and place it in between my fingers to furthur boost the experience. This was my dream, unfortunately when my preschool yearbook came out they changed my ambition from “conductor” to “doctor”.

It’s fun to talk about the things you did when you were a kid. I guess that’s the reason why I like to tell this story to new friends or relatives. Aside from that, it reveals something about me which I like to share with other people. I believe that I have a reason for wanting to be something apart from the cliché dream jobs like doctors and nurses. Ever since, I have been different and reluctant to follow the current trend of the people. It also shows that I am still a kid at heart, for this story of me being a kid, still shows who I am now. I am amazed by the ordinary things like ticket bundles and thumb rubbers. I like to observe these kinds of things even though they present a meager importance in our lives. Over time, I have altered the story one way or another but I try as much as possible to keep the story intact. I am not really sure if I thought there was such a course as “bus conductoring” or if the yearbook people did actually change my ambition (however, I never dreamt of being a doctor). Also, I have learned through telling my story that kids’ dreams are usually simple and innocent. However, as they grow, they would realize that our childhood dreams wouldn’t really cut it in the grownup world.