Mother Teresa- Simplicity of a Smile

Mother Teresa: Born 1910- Died 1997

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.
— Mother Teresa, Saint of the Catholic Church

       

It’s the simple things in life that make me happy. A simple smile can mean a lot to someone. They might remedy a horrible day or cure a broken heart, sickness, or indifference.

          During my junior year in high school, I lived with my mother for a good six months. My mother lives on the Navajo Reservation but only twenty-five minutes out of town. Every day, I would get up at 5:30, in the morning, and have to be ready by 6:45 a.m. My grandpa would drive to my aunt’s house, to my house, and to my other aunt’s house to carpool all of us to the bus stop about two miles away.

          The first day of doing this, I hated it. I had to wake up an hour early and have a long bus ride to school. Of course I was being over dramatic. One day, we had to change buses because our bus driver quit. It was odd getting on a different bus. There were so many new people.

One morning, after all my younger cousins got on the bus, I was walking up the steps. There was a little boy in the front seat. He watched me walk down the aisle and sit next to one of my friends. For some odd reason, he kept staring at me. I did not know what to say or do. My friend said, “Oh…why is Michael staring at you?”

I asked, “Who is Michael?”

“Oh he’s this special ed kid that lost his parents when he was five. Everyone on the bus knows him, and everyone is nice to him,” she explained.

          That got me thinking about so much! He was just staring at me for no apparent reason, but this boy did not have a clue who I was. Every day for a month the boy did this. It was like a daily routine, and I fell in the rut! I never talked to him because I did not know how he was going to react. I always wondered if he secretly hated me or wanted to tell me something.

          After school, I was running late for the bus pickup. I had to run back to my locker and grab an important paper. Just as the bus was about to depart, I ran outside to catch it. When I finally boarded, there were no seats, that I could see, that were available for occupation . My friend was sitting by someone who was already asleep, and the only seat that was open was Michael’s.

          I sat down, and I wondered if he was going to talk to me. He stared at me for awhile but then he quickly dodged my gaze and stared out the window. I decided I would make the first move.

          “Hi, Michael! My name is Auburn. How are you?” I ask cheerfully.

          “Mmm,” was all he said.

I thought he was going to be cool, I thought to myself. Another five miles floats by and I said, “So how was your day?”

          Again he went, “Mmm.”

I start getting worried why he will not talk to me. Well I guess it’ll be a quiet ride home.

          I was almost home, and right before my stop, Michael turns to me and says, “Thanks for sitting with me today. You are really pretty.” Then he grins. I walk off the bus feeling like a rainy day just burst into sunshine. I was floored! He surprised me with such a simple sentence that I will remember forever.

          Sometimes someone just needs a friend, a person to be there for them, or just sit next to them on a bus.  What I realized just by that one day, sitting next to Michael is a gesture so simple, but it can change an entire outlook on something. That smile Michael gave me was a token of friendship, and I took it.

My version of the quote: Small acts of kindness can mean so much.