"We aren't children."

So, as always, I was nonchalantly overhearing a conversation on the bus on the way home from an appointment. This was a happy day because the university year has ended and many of the most interesting people have gone off to their hometowns, therefore I have been encountering less and less good things to write about. As you may have noticed.

Anyways, the conversation was between a girl and a guy. The first thing that caught my attention was this: the girl casually stated that she was getting a lot of people saying that they were surprised that she was starting a family so young. After briefly listening closely, I learned that she was 18 years old and about four months pregnant. The guy she was talking to, presumably the same age, was a little quieter, but he seemed like a fairly nice guy who was just a little uncomfortable with the idea that one of his friends was pregnant and loving it.

She said that she had been with her boyfriend for a year and a half, and they had been living together for a year and three months. She was saying that she was very thankful that she was pregnant with someone she actually cared about because some of her friends had gotten pregnant with some random guy who they can't even remember having sex with.

Firstly, I want to say this: At least you aren't one of those girls, but are you nuts? I may be naive or sheltered or something, but I'm really not used to 18-year olds being happy about the fact that they're going to have a child while they are still in university (she said that she was taking a program at Waterloo).

She also said that she is going to ask her boss for more hours. She mentioned that her boyfriend was a businessman and she was a chef, so she had her life figured out. Thank God for that. Hopefully she's right.

She said that she is due sometime near her birthday and that she and her mom are going to do a "pub run", whether she has had her baby or not. Aaahh!! What are you thinking? She said that she will not drink until then, but really?? Why not wait until you have had your child until you do that, especially if it's so near your birthday?

Anyways, she seemed very exciting about it and I kinda zoned out when she started talking about how she hopes she doesn't get stretch marks.

I was thinking that if I was her friend, I would support her and stuff and try and be open-minded. However, I would smack her down if she decided to drink while still pregnant. Well. Maybe not actually, but I would definitely try and convince her that it is a BAD IDEA.

So, am I naive? Am I stupid in thinking that families should start after you have a career and happily married? Maybe.

One thing she said that interested me is that she is thankful that she's 18, which means that she is an adult and can hopefully make the right decisions. She said, "We aren't children." I would have to disagree with this, but she also said that she has been living away from home since she was 14, so maybe I misjudged her.

I'm praying for her and I really hope that something terrible doesn't happen like her boyfriend leaves her or she is coerced into drinking. Her boyfriend apparently was supportive when she told him, but still. Men are strange.

Maybe, in a few years, every family will start this young. It will be a normal thing to do, and no one will wonder or judge. No one will look at you with your stroller thinking, "She looks hardly out of high school...." No one will write posts about conversations like this, and no one will feel uncomfortable. No one will lose any respect for you. Maybe.

Where are all the colours?

So, I haven't posted in a REALLY long time because my life is crappy and stuff, so finally, I have decided to post something.

So, ever since I first started taking the bus (a VERY long time ago...at least it seems that way...), I've taken the 24 route, and very often I take it late at night. This isn't all that exciting because route 24 isn't a super-popular route, and it's not anywhere near the universities or anything which we all know makes for a much more exciting bus ride.

Anyways, there is a man who takes the 24 every single night. Now, I know you might think that I'm especially creepy for this one, but you would notice too if someone who looked and acted like this took the bus every night with you. So, this man is probably about 45 or 50 years old, but it's hard to say because he is completely bald. There is not a single hair on any part of his body that is visible. Not even stubble. It's kind of crazy. However, I imagine that if he did have hair that it would be grey. And this is why:

His eyes, pants, shoes, bag and hat are all various shades of grey. His coat was once a tan colour and that has undeniably faded to a strange grey colour. All his clothes just look so worn and used that they lost all their colour. Even his skin is a kind of pale grey colour, although it's not a particularly striking shade of grey. He's just grey. He has a faint smell of baby powder hanging around him that is kind of endearing to me. Even so, he's a kind of guy that you would imagine is almost invisible (unless you are particularly observant and take the bus every day with the same guy). Like he just sort of fades into the background. No one really seems to notice him, and it's very interesting to me.

Another point that I find especially intriguing is this: He talks to himself. I know, not all that exciting, but when I say that I really mean it. It's almost like he is having a controversial conversation with someone who sits on a seat near him. He nods and shakes his head, and his mouth forms inaudible sentences and his hands move as if he is a hand talker. He even looks in a certain direction sometimes like he's speaking with someone who is really there. This brings to mind a case of schizophrenia, like in "A Beautiful Mind", but I'm not a doctor, so I can't say that for sure. Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking, If this guy is making all these movements and talking and stuff, why aren't people constantly looking at him? Like I said before, it's almost like he's invisible. People just don't look at him, even if he's sitting in the very center of the bus. Also, he's pretty discreet about it. I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't started seeing him everywhere. And I really do. I see him at the terminal, and walking down the same street as me, and at the grocery store.

He walks with a very defined limp, and sometimes, when he gets off the bus, he breaks into a hobbling run. He lives in an apartment building, and it's almost like he cannot wait to get back there. I never see him with anyone else, and sometimes he likes to make conversation with the bus drivers, but really, he looks like a very lonely guy. And now that I think about it, I've never seen him smile, even when he's talking with the drivers.

There isn't too much of a point to this post I guess, but I just wonder about his life. Whether he really is lonely, or if he has a family. Why he looks so grey? Where did the colours go? His eyes have a kind of emptiness in them that's really very sad. I'm sure I will keep seeing him, and I will be very sad and thoughtful indeed on the day I don't see him on the 12:00am 24 bus.