Summary Of Riding The Bus With My Sister

Riding the Bus with My Sister: A True Life Journey by Rachel Simon chronicles the year Rachel decided to ride the bus with her sister, Beth. Beth is a spunky and forthright woman with a mild intellectual disability. She builds a community of support through her favored pastime- riding the public buses around town. Rachel and Beth are close in age, but grew distant over time. Rachel agrees to spend a year riding the buses with Beth in an effort to mend their relationship. On their rides, Rachel is introduced to a troupe of bus drivers, who are funny, independent, knowledgeable, compassionate, and wise. As Rachel seeks to know her sister better, she also comes to better understand herself. This is facilitated by interactions with various bus

drivers and care team members. Rachel’s purpose for embarking on this journey was to improve her relationship and better understand Beth. In the process, she changes. This book is about opening yourself up to others, in order to gain insight into them and yourself.
The memoir is written in Rachel’s voice and reveals her inner thoughts and feelings throughout the experience. While it features dialogue with the bus drivers, care team, and Beth, the reader interprets their ideas through Rachel. The reader draws on Rachel’s interpretations of situations, such as when she wonders about the inner thoughts of her sister. She struggles to understand and accept Beth and her ways. Rachel’s inner voice is often heard, especially in times of frustration. However, we never hear the situation from another person’s perspective until Beth’s retrospective interview at the end of the book. While dialogue with others takes place, the matters discussed in the book are from Rachel’s point of view.
One theme highlighted in the book was participation.

Vik, Nygård, Borell, and Josephsson (2008) described the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health’s definition of participation as involvement in a life situation. One important factor of participation is agency, which is the ability of an individual to competently reason and communicate power through various means. In their study, the authors found agency to be an indicator of making decisions, choices, and actively participating in daily life. Beth was an agent of her own life with every decision she made as she exercised her right to self-determination. One example of Beth’s self-determination comes early in the book, when Rachel attends her Plan of Care meeting. There, Rachel meets Beth’s care team and becomes aware of Beth’s financial and medical situations, and her safety, relationships, hopes for the future, and lack of interest in classes, participation in an organization, or a job. While this lack of interest concerns Rachel, her care team honor her right to self-determination, and accepts her negative responses without debate. In time, Rachel comes to the realization that Beth is an agent of her own life, actively choosing how she will participate. She chooses where and how to travel, when and what to eat, and how to dress. Rachel acknowledges “She is, in many ways, the embodiment of self-determination” (Simon, 2002, p. 194). This realization eases her tension, as she begins to accept Beth’s choice to ride the buses and understand the way she chooses to participate in

life.
Spirituality is another theme brought to light in the book. Johnston and Mayers (2005) define spirituality as “the search for meaning or purpose in life…experienced through connectedness… and/or by one’s relationships with self [or] others” (p. 386). Multiple bus drivers discuss the way they connect with others and how this provides meaning in their lives. One of the drivers, Tim, left college to become a bus driver when his wife became pregnant. He described the way he listens to the history of others, and in this way connects with the past and present. The interactions provide him with a different perspective of the world, and he found meaning in those opportunities. Other bus drivers spoke of defining moments in which they connected with God, and found purpose in their lives. One example is Jacob, who firmly believes in the Golden Rule. He had been diagnosed with Hepatitis B, but was provided a second chance at life with a liver transplant. He came out of surgery with a whole new outlook on life, and began reading the Bible to become closer to God and Jesus. Throughout the book, Jacob follows the Golden Rule and teachings of the Bible by helping Beth and Rachel. He takes them to the beach, accompanies them during Beth’s eye surgery, and ensures Beth follows the doctor’s instructions afterwards. The book presents spirituality in a secular and religious light through the various stories of the bus drivers, who each derive meaning from their connection to others or God.
The book’s description of Beth’s choices and Rachel’s personal motivations for taking up this journey offer knowledge about self-determination that is valuable to occupational therapists. Self-determination is directly linked to Beth because of the emphasis on her right to make her own decisions, but it also links to Rachel in a subtle way. Ryan and Deci (2000) distinguish intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation as the former referring to doing an activity because it is inherently satisfying, and the latter as doing to achieve a separate result. Intrinsic motivation is a greater force than extrinsic motivation. However, it can be integrated through relatedness, which is the need to feel connected with others. Rachel’s journey began with a desire to reconnect with her sister. In order to do that, she would have to ride the bus with her. While this concept is not extrinsically motivating for Rachel, the opportunity it provides to be close and better understand Beth’s interests leads her to accept Beth’s request. By understanding self-determination and how it applies to those with and without disabilities, occupational therapists can facilitate participation based on what motivates a client. They can then engage the client’s support system in the intervention by understanding the effect relatedness can have. The authors identify the need for maintenance and enhancement of intrinsic motivations within supportive conditions. Thus, by understanding self-determination from the perspective of the client and the support system, occupational therapists can motivate both parties to participate in planned interventions and create an environment that facilitates engagement, making interventions more effective.