A Bench at a Bus Stop

A tan plastic bus bench sits on a slight hill outside the Safeway grocery store in Belmont. It has chewing gum stuck on it, and there are a few bumps and scratches on it, as expected with any public bench. The floor is littered with leaves from the towering trees behind the bench. Plastic wrappers that sadly have not made it into the nearby garbage can dot the mismatched cement tiles. Near the street, a sign on a leaning pole displays the buses that stop there, SamTrans route 262 and 260. The traffic, ranging from small cars to large shipping trucks, rushes by on Ralston Ave, which is one of the busiest streets in Belmont. The air smelled of pungent crushed eucalyptus leaves and asphalt, heated with the warm afternoon sun. At around 4 in the afternoon, an elderly Chinese man walks towards the bench with his two young grandchildren skipping jocundly behind him. They sit down on the bench.

My typical afternoon while I was in elementary school was like this. I would be dismissed from school, my grandfather would take the bus to my school, and sign me and my younger brother out. Then, we would hike up the hill to the SamTrans 262 route bus station. While sitting on the bench, my grandfather would treat us to a juicebox or a go-gurt he brought from home. As we waited for the 262 bus to take us home, my grandfather would tell me stories about his experiences in China during World War II.

When my grandfather was a young teenager, The Second World War was raging. The Japanese were invading his homeland, China, so he enlisted in an air combat preparatory academy run by the Chinese Nationalist Army. He was taught by American volunteer instructors, and they learned how to fly the American-manufactured Curtiss Hawk IIIs. After Japan surrendered, my grandfather did not want to fight in the civil war which ensued, so he left the service and became a history professor at Jinan University.

Intrigued by my grandfather’s personal experiences, I looked forward everyday to hearing a new story. As we walked toward the bench from school, I would ask my grandfather what would be today’s story. Sometimes when he was tired, I would have to plead with him to tell me one; I always asked for more, with my mouth dry from the added sugar in the sweet snacks.  Because my grandfather was a professor, great amounts of history were integrated into his stories. He would tell me about all the different countries that fought in the Second World War. In this way, I received three years worth of history lessons from kindergarten to third grade. On that bench, my interest in world history and warfare was sparked. I remember my first globe was a gift from him. I loved to sit on a couch, with the globe in my lap, spinning it around and taking in all the different countries of the world. It delighted me.

Studying World War II became my hobby. In most of my free time, I read books about the war, or binge-read Wikipedia articles about the topic. Most of my free-reading books were history books or books about World War II. Now, I have a whole bookshelf of these books. I was fascinated by all the epic battle, like Midway, Stalingrad, Normandy, Iwo Jima, and Kursk, and also the heroes and machinery in the battles, like Richard Best and his SBD Dauntless, Jimmy Doolittle and his B-25, Eugene Fluckey and the USS Barb, and Zhukov and the T-34 tanks. The topics continue endlessly.

After devouring all this material, I became more interested in exploring another topic which was an instrumental human factor in deciding the outcome of the war. I knew a lot of the facts about the war, and inevitably, I began to contemplate the people who made the history, especially the exemplary leadership of the extraordinary commanders who lead the most influential battles of the war. Eisenhower, Patton, Nimitz, Halsey, Churchill, Zhukov, Montgomery and de Gaulle are just a few of the characters I studied. I was fascinated in all of their different styles of leading, and the results brought about by their ways of commanding.

While sitting on the bench one day, my grandfather told me of a person he admired. His name was Dwight D Eisenhower, who was an American military general during the Second World War. He lead the Normandy Landings of 1944, commonly known as D-Day. After the war, he became the President of the United States. Interested in this, I did some more studying on my own about Eisenhower. I found him to be a very calm and level-headed leader. Being the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, he had to deal with a variety of subordinates, one of which was the hot-headed George S Patton, another American general. In an infamous incident, Patton slapped a battle-weary soldier. The American public was outraged, and Eisenhower skillfully managed and calmed the public outcry and compromised with an apologetic Patton by taking away some of Patton’s command. The incident is a prime example of two types of leadership. From this, I began to admire Eisenhower even more. I also began to contemplate how these types of leading entwined with my life.

As a Boy Scout, I am often tasked with being in charge of a group of younger, often squirrely and immature scouts. Applying what I learned from the generals like Eisenhower, I have found that being calm and level-headed in command is much more effective than being stone-cold and agitated. At one particular campout, I was put in charge of one group, while a friend of mine was put in charge of another group. Throughout the day and activities at camp, I observed him losing his temper quite often with his group. On the other hand, I drew from my knowledge of Eisenhower’s leadership skills, and I patiently worked with my group. I used negotiation and compromise to achieve our different goals and make everyone somewhat satisfied. This worked very well at the campout, and my group placed third overall in the competitions.

History in general gave me a lot of joy, fascinating me with all its complex events, figures, and interconnecting circumstances. I slowly began to realize that historical figures are deep wells of wisdom from which I can draw valuable skills and lessons from. My grandfather lead me to the bench, which opened the cover on this omnipotent well of knowledge. Like a villager who depends on a water well, I often went to my own well to seek knowledge and wisdom, which shaped me as I grew up. As of now, I try my best, although not always successfully, to emulate Eisenhower and the great leaders of World War II.

From the small plain bench in Belmont, I was introduced to a vast world of history. The bench changed the way I see the world and people, and let me learn from all the characters, heroes, and figures who defined the history of the world. It shaped how I interact with other people and how I carry myself on a daily basis.

And because World War II is such a broad and complex event in history, it is almost impossible for me to explore every single detail of it. But that will not stop me from trying. I have firmly convinced myself that my journey and realizations through World War II will continue to influence me until the end of my life. Nowadays, every time I pass that bench, I think to myself, “that is where my passion started”. Passion shapes who I am, and it will take me to my destiny.