A day in the life of a bus driver.
-Katie Meisel
Stop. Load. “Stay in your seats!” Go. Stop. Load. “He hit me!” Go. Stop. Load. “This is your only warning!” Go. Repeat 37 more times. Sound like fun? Robert Meisel does it five days a week, 35 weeks a year, and it’s the best job he’s ever had. After wandering in and out of UT, the Marine Corps, and UT law school for eight years and pursuing varied careers such as private practice law, real estate, and business ownership, Meisel found his true calling – driving a school bus for EISD.
Initially, Meisel chose to take the job for two reasons – medical insurance, and the fact that he loves working with kids. Ever since his son, now 20, began playing soccer at the age of 4, Meisel has coached or refereed soccer games for the majority of his weekends. He says that the children are what make the job so much fun.
“It turned out to be delightful, working with kids. Even the high school kids,” he jokes.
One perk to driving the bus is that “yeah, you gotta go back in the afternoon, but there’s still time in there to go run, or practice law… get into trouble,” he said.
Meisel spends his free time in between morning and afternoon routes doing just that, and then some. He also loves to ride his bike and fancies himself a journeymen level bike mechanic. Nowadays, Meisel referees soccer games, officiates triathlons, acts as a notary public, and even occasionally takes on a client or two. But he doesn’t separate his life into “work” and “play”.
“Most of what I do is fun,” he insists.
Although most may not have quite so varied employments, many of the bus drivers do have multiple jobs. Among the staff are a chemical engineer, two other lawyers, a professional cook, a professional photographer and a retired Metro driver. Meisel says of this seemingly-hodgepodge group that the one thing they all have in common is that they are there for the kids – to help them, keep an eye on them, and keep them safe.
“If the kids want an army of aged and infirmed advocates,” Meisel said, the bus drivers will happily play the part.
Meisel first began working for EISD in the fall of 2005 and plans to keep it up long after his daughter, a senior, graduates. In his driving career so far, he says that one of the best experiences he has had was transporting special needs Rita evacuees back to Houston once the city had regained some semblance of order.
“We drove this big, yellow, flat-nosed bus into this nice residential area and we started unloading these folks with their bags and bags of stuff and I kept thinking, ‘What are the neighbors thinking?’ But it was all worth it. When we got them back into their houses, to see the unrestrained joy, pleasure and relief at being back home, in familiar surroundings. I remember a few of them just walked from room to room, touching the walls. You don’t get a chance to provide that much pleasure to someone very often, and you need to treasure that moment.”
After trying his hand at many more dour professions, Meisel is happy to have ended up in a place so jovial as the EISD bus barn.
“The people I work with are great,” he said. They work, they chat, and “try desperately not to act [their] respective ages.”