Pineda 1

Yosef Pineda
Professor James Keyworth
KEILLOR ASSIGNMENT—ENG 100
14 Jun 2021

Someone to Sit Next to Me

By Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
16 May 18

  There was so much good news last week. Gorillas appear to be thriving, according to the
Wildlife Conservation Society, and there are about 361,919 of them, twice as many as had been
believed. Humpback whales, who were nearly hunted out of existence in the 19th century, are
making a comeback in the seas off Antarctica: the birth rate is on the upswing, according to a
new study. (The animals are the size of a school bus and have a life expectancy similar to ours.)
And a study at the University of Michigan shows that people who work out even 10 minutes a
day tend to be more cheerful than those who don’t.

  This is science, people. This isn’t fake news. These conclusions are based on actual facts
established through observation by people who can count. What I learn from this is that it
brightens your day to skip the front-page stuff about Washington and focus on science. Someday
I expect to find a study showing that 75-year-old men who rode school buses as children have a
longer life expectancy. That’s me.

  I rode a school bus for six years, 12 miles each way morning and afternoon, on a highway in
Minnesota, cornfields to the west, the Mississippi to the east. I stood at the end of a gravel road,
a gawky kid with wire-rim glasses, wearing second-hand clothes, knowing there would not be an
empty seat because mine was the last stop.

  The bus pulled up, the door opened, I climbed aboard, and the driver waited until I sat down
before he started the bus. Nobody squeezed together to make room so I had to pick out a seat
with skinny girls in it and hurl myself at them and hold on for dear life as they tried to shove me
out when the bus went around a sharp curve. This is a fact.

  I had emotional problems in my youth — who didn’t? — and a religious crisis and a search for
identity, all of that — but the struggle for seating on the bus was my No. 1 problem. My mother
had five other children so I didn’t bother her with this. The school had no grief counselors that I
could discuss it with. I had to pull up my socks and fight for a few inches of seat, enough for one
cheek, and hang on with all my might.

  Now you know why I avoid public transportation. And when I fly, if I’m upgraded to First
Class, my heart sings.

  Six years of classmates resisting my physical presence had a big effect on me. I learned to not
be put off by rejection, that all you need is one acceptance.
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   Somewhere on the school bus of life is one beautiful person who will move over and make
room for you. That is all you need.

  The fellow passenger who has made room for me all these years happens to be a professional
musician, trained to read tiny insect tracks on a page and perform as indicated while a man with
wild hair waves a stick in the air. She is no slacker, in other words. She has run a marathon,
given birth to a child, hiked alone through foreign landscapes, lived close to the poverty line in
New York City, and recently read Anna Karenina. She tends the plants in the yard and knows
their names. She is well-versed on social convention and has sound opinions about music, books,
and design. She is more than capable.

  It’s a comedy routine when she’s around and a lovely system of checks and balances. I say,
“Let’s put a ping-pong table in the living room” and she says, “I’d rather we didn’t” and so we
don’t.

  She says, “You’re not wearing that tie with that shirt, are you?” “Not anymore,” I say.

  She points discreetly at her left nostril and hands me a tissue. She reminds me of the name of
that woman with the glasses (Liz) whom I ought to know — I told my wife, “Her and me went to
school together” so that she’d have the satisfaction of saying, “She and I went to school
together.” “No,” I said, “You’re 15 years younger; you didn’t go to school with Liz and me.”

  The loner with the guitar is the American hero, but I love a member of the orchestra, and try to
submerge my individuality into a good marriage. The secret of civility is synchronicity. The
gorillas and whales know that and now I think I do too.
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KEILLOR ASSIGNMENT
1. What is Keillor's message in this essay?
When Keillor traveled for six years on a bus suffered different types of rejection, identity, and
religious problems with his parents. This stuff affected him a lot during his childhood, but at the
same time helped him to mature and to know that there can be a person in the world who can
make you happy despite your problems and emotions.
2. What are the strengths of this essay?
This essay has different strengths about how Keillor suffered from a lot of rejection when he was
a child, science was also something very important to him because there are always studies that
prove the truth of things as Keillor likes. Finally, Keillor's love for his wife is very important to
him and the way he shows it is very sincere.
3. Why do you think he begins with good news and science before he starts telling his own
personal story?
Keillor starts talking about studies that show that gorillas and whales are thriving over time, this
shows us that science gives news with studies that prove its truth and not like the news and
soccer on the front page of a newspaper. Keillor uses science as a connector by saying that he
would like researchers to conduct a study that proves that people who rode the bus as children
have longer life spans.
4. What did you relate to in this story? What is universal about his experience?
Although suffering rejection during our childhood and at the same time having problems with
family makes us feel ashamed of ourselves for not being able to meet other people's standards or
expectations. But in the end, what matters is to be happy with the person you love the most who
respects you the way you are.
5. What is unique about Keillor's definition of love? (How does his story differ from most
love stories?)
The way Keillor talks about his wife is very special as he describes all the qualities she has,
making anyone want to have a person just like her. In addition, Keillor shows how he does
everything he can to stay in total agreement with his wife to have a good marriage.