The Day Emily Had to Sit By “Some Random Guy”

One of our favorite stories from Emily’s first week of Kindergarten involved riding the bus.  She was really looking forward to riding the bus and knew several of the kids, so she had kind of planned on sitting next to one of her pre-existing buddies.  The first couple of days, her bus riding buddy situation went as planned, but by day three, things took an unexpected turn. 

When Emily got off of the bus I asked her which one of her friends she got to sit by.  She gave me a disgusted look with a mini eye roll topped off with the single eye-brow raise.  So I knew something serious was afoot.  She then proceeded to tell me that she “had to sit by some random guy named Miiiiiikkkkkke.  I was pretty sure this kid must have been a freak of nature based on how she said his name. 

So we reviewed what you should do when you sit by someone you don’t know.  We talked about ways she could start a conversation and how she could make their 8 minute bus ride be the least painful it could be. We talked about how you can make those situations be unpleasant or you can try to make a new friend.  Apparently, she took my advice to heart and quickly became best buddies with Mike, who actually turned out to be named Cade but she is also besties with Micah (who we think was actually who she was referring to as Miiiikkkkke), and Bradley, who is actually named Blake but she calls him Bradley because Katelyn had a BFF in Kindergarten named Bradley and his big brother is named Blake, so she felt justified in renaming him to suit her needs).

So now, Emily has developed a seating rotation for the bus.  Since her flock of boys fight over who gets to sit next to her, she came up with a schedule that accounts for the days that some of them aren’t on the bus and gives her favorite(s) an extra turn or two.  Good luck boys… you’ve got your work cut out for you.