Henry Kraatz's Blog

Today I have a confession to make. I was mean to a person who really did not deserve it. At the time I didn’t realize what I was doing or the effect it had on him. I may have even thought I was right to bully him. Looking back now, however, I see that I was just being a dick for no reason. I know I wasn’t the only person bullying this man, because I jumped on a bullying-bandwagon. Recent events would lead me to believe I’m not the only person who is looking back, horrified at their actions. To explain how this all started, first I have to talk about memes. You may have seen a meme. It’s often a funny image with a relatable caption, but especially in recent years memes reached far beyond this specific example. Memes have become obtuse, abstract, and even surreal. They are no longer about being relatable to the everyday human experience. Typically the only way to “get” this kind of meme is if you were there at the beginning. In other words, memes have become a big, stupid inside joke

           Last week I read Mariano’s blog post about how riding the bus was a terrible experience saved only by an amazing bus driver. I realized that my first experience had been nearly the opposite; it was an amazing time tarnished only by the bus driver. Maybe I’m being too harsh on the man, after all we barely noticed him most of the time and he was only human. I’ll let you judge him yourself.             For some context, this was when I was in 8 th grade in England. I had never ridden the bus before since I used to live close to my school. This new school was pretty far from my house so I had to take the public bus. Going to a new school in a foreign country was terrifying, but the other kids on the bus took me in. As we spent more time together, we became best friends. I would often dread school, but the bus ride there and the bus ride home were highlights of my day. We would sit either in the very back of the bus or on the top deck (yes they were double-decker buses) an