Someone Called Me Pretty at the Bus Stop
Sometimes grace finds us on a random Tuesday at the bus stop.
Dear Belle,
So today, something unexpectedly lovely happened.
I was at the bus stop today, headed home from work, exhausted as usual, with my eyes set to “do not disturb” mode. You know the look: shoulders drooped, earpods in, soul halfway asleep. That kind. My posture was questionable, and I’m 99.9% sure I looked like I’d been on a seven-day fast from joy and sleep.
Anyway, I was just waiting for my bus, not trying to be cute, not trying to be noticed, just trying to survive, when I saw this woman. She’s often on the same bus with me in the mornings. I’ve seen her before. Quiet, polite, minding her business.
But today, I noticed she kept glancing at me. Not in a creepy way.
Like, repeatedly.
And for a brief moment, I panicked.
“Is there something on my face?”
”Is my wig sliding off?”
“Did I forget to zip something?”
“Do I look like someone who just got dumped on the sidewalk of life?”
It wasn’t malicious; she didn’t look weirded out. Just… like she wanted to say something but didn’t know how. And maybe it was the exhaustion or the fact that I hadn’t interacted with a joyful human being all day. To help her out, I just said hi first.
“Hi.”
And Belle, that’s when it happened.
She lit up and blurted out,
“You are sooo pretty!”
And I blinked. Like... huh?
I was confused.
I was… borderline suspicious.
I looked around to see if she was talking to someone else. Maybe a prettier person behind me. Maybe a ghost. But nope. Just me, my workbag, and my “I give up” face.
She said it again: “You are so pretty.”
And again: “Honestly, you’re so pretty.”
"Even on the days you feel invisible, someone is looking right at you with wonder."
Now I don’t know what kind of spiritual glasses she was wearing, but I was wearing eye bags, dry skin, and a frown. I managed an awkward “Oh my God… thank you?” I was in shock. My soul was still tired, and my body was already in bed. What exactly did she see?
“Oh my God… thank you?” like a question. Because I wasn’t entirely sure how to receive it.
I mean, who expects a compliment when their eyebrows are fighting for their lives and their soul left their body at 5p.m.? Because… I definitely wasn’t smiling. (I was hanging on by a thread called "8 working hours and zero snacks.")
But Belle… she meant it. Genuinely. With joy. With excitement. Like telling me felt like the most important task on her to-do list today.
She said she had noticed me on the bus a few times.
She said I always looked “composed.”
(Which is true 😏, yeah, cause I mean, I just showered… But sometimes I’m mentally wrestling my thoughts and calculating how much sleep I didn’t get. And lately, I’ve just been kind of... emotionless. Just there. Existing.)
We talked like two schoolgirls for a few minutes, laughing, connecting, and trading little stories. And every few sentences, she’d pause and go:
“No, but… wow. You’re just so pretty.”
At some point, I almost felt weird from how many compliments she kept giving me, but it was too genuine to feel like flattery. She was just joyful. Like her compliment had been burning in her chest for days, and she finally let it out.
And that’s how I made a new friend.
At some point, I laughed and asked if she was planning to hype me all the way home, and she just giggled and shrugged like, “Well, I can’t help it.”
I think what stunned me wasn’t just the compliment; it was the timing.
She saw something beautiful in me when I felt invisible. When I felt drained. When I felt like a walking “please don’t talk to me” sign.
And still, she saw light.
That kind of joy is… contagious. It made me want to give someone else the same unexpected lift. Not because I felt like it (honestly, I still feel half-asleep), but because it reminded me that we don’t always know what people see when they look at us. It reminded me how beauty, and I don’t just mean physical beauty, isn’t always about how you feel. Sometimes it’s about how someone else sees you. When your self-perception is blurry, someone else’s clarity can change your day.
Sometimes we’re just trying to get through the day, and someone’s out there thinking,
“Wow… I wish I had her confidence.”
“I wish I looked like her.”
“She has no idea how she lights up a space.”
And maybe we don’t see it because we’re too focused on everything that’s not going right.
Too consumed by survival to recognize that we’re still radiating something, even in the exhaustion, even in the silence.
So yeah, Belle.
I made a new friend today. And even if she turns out to be a limited edition, one-bus-ride-only blessing, I’m keeping that moment.
Because I really needed it.
Because I didn’t see it coming.
And because now I kind of want to go out into the world and randomly bless someone else with an over-the-top compliment, just to watch their confusion melt into a smile.
So, Belle, say hi first sometimes. Compliment a stranger. Be the person who shocks someone with softness on a day they weren’t expecting it.
Because sometimes, the kindest things happen at the bus stop.
And sometimes, you’re prettier than you think, especially when you don’t feel it.
What a strange, wholesome, human kind of magic.