The lifeblood of this country

I got a little emotional on my commute home today. I took a running class at my gym in downtown San Francisco and was too tired to Lyte bike or e-scooter home so I decided to try to find a bus. Google maps took me to Yerba Buena for a 70 “blue” bus. I had no idea what the heck this bus was. I grew up in San Francisco and rode MUNI buses and trains almost every day but this was a foreign service to me.

After some Googling, I figured out that this was something called Golden Gate Transit which connects SF and the North Bay. I had no idea this existed. Well, I tried to figure out how to pay for this said bus and it took me to multiple web pages and eventually found out that I needed a Clipper card. I didn’t have mine on me so I had to download an app.

The bus arrived and I got on while still trying to figure out how to load my credit card to my Clipper app. The bus driver was great about it and still let me on. After 5 more minutes, I was able to figure it out. This all took me about 15 minutes and I grew up here.

This is not why I got emotional of course. I wrote this long and uninteresting story because as I got on a bus, this guy next to me who barely spoke any English was also trying to figure out how to ride the bus to San Rafael. He was young, clearly didn’t grow up here and was struggling to figure out the app with his little English. Lucky for him, I was going through the same and was able to help out.

I got a bit emotional as I realized just how difficult life can be for a young immigrant. I don’t know much about this guy or his story, but I instantly thought of my Dad who was sent to San Francisco when he was 19 with minimal English skills. Unlike myself who grew up in a comfortable situation in San Francisco, my Dad was forced to leave his home and had to make it a brand new place pretty much on the other side of the planet.

Immigration is what makes this country special. It pains me to see the anti-immigration sentiment that’s been vocal in recent years. As if life isn’t hard enough for an immigrant who just wants a better life, they have to deal with people in this country who don’t want them here. That kills me inside.