I want to be a school bus driver.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

It’s an age-old question asked of every child, and the answers are almost equally universal: fireman, policeman, doctor, lawyer, or banker. For the more adventurous, there were other answers: astronaut, quarterback, professional baseball player. Rarely, if ever, did I hear someone reply that they wanted to be a school bus driver, but if you asked me today, that would be my reply.

This week, a deranged man boarded a school bus and kidnapped a child. The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland, Jr., resisted the assailant and was shot several times and later died. Once again, we are faced with an unexplainable act of terror involving children. Once again, someone stood up and gave their lives protecting the children. The darkness and light make a penetrating contrast, leaving me to ask what I would have done?

Like all the children before and after me, I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. Even when I was older, beginning my vocation in the church, I thought of who I wanted to be, or whom I wanted to be like. I wanted to be the Headmaster of this school . . . the Rector of that parish . . . like this Bishop or religious leader . . . or maybe even someone like Mother Teresa.

Never did I lower my sights to an ordinary person like Charles Albert Poland, Jr. I had loftier aspirations, but this school bus driver did all that we could ask of a human being. He gave up his life to save others. That’s why I want to be a school bus driver when I grow up.