The Bright Star Burns On

Another tale from the life of a rideshare driver

A lonely palm in the LA morning sky. Picture by D. Thayer Russell.

The sun was up and I had just dropped off a very nervous and bright-eyed young man to take his SATs. He had a 3.5 GPA which seems good enough, but in California it leaves you on the outside looking in for the highly competitive UC schools, so he felt a lot of pressure to perform. I tried to level him down a bit which was helped by my low-key demeanor as I had been working…