The 20:36 bus, from the city center to the nearby suburb where I live, takes an alternate route from the 19:36 one or the 21:18 + 21:37 combination I usually take. This legendary bus route, only usable on key days when I can get out of class early, takes the long way through the suburb, greatly elevated in respect to the city, and present to the lucky few people that ride it what I consider to be the best view of the whole city.

It is a short moment. Less than a minute, I think. No pictures get even close to the real thing, so the only way to experience it is to take the 20:36 bus. And that makes it ever so special.

Each day, I prepare all arrangements necessary to ride this bus. I sit on the next-to-last seat, right side, where normally ceiling lights are not on (and thus there are no reflections on the window glass), I prepare my music, weeding out the queue to get nothing but the best songs, and I prepare for the best minute of the day.

And thus, the bus slowly makes its way through the crowded streets, in between the sleepy neighborhoods, until you can start to see the city lights, off in the distance, in the gaps between the houses. Soon enough, it takes a curve and suddenly the whole city is at your feet.

It is breathtaking, every single time. You can see every light, every street in the lined streetlights, the skyscrapers rising high, the monuments standing out. The cars, moving, the chimney smokes, the Christmas decorations and the giant tree downtown, the planes landing, off in the distance. It is one of the things I most look forward to, each day. The possibility of getting to see this view, of getting awestruck, of my heart missing a bit each time the curve comes, of pressing the face against the window trying to fit it all in my head. Of the best soundtrack that I can find each day accompanying it.

It gives me hope, of all things. It gives me a renewed will to be better. An aim to be as bright as the city. A feeling, deep in the chest, that everything will be well, that the world is an incredible place full of amazing things to experience. The certainty that happiness can be found. And an impulse that carries me over until I get to see it again the next time I ride the 20:36 bus.