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23 Things I Learned From My Lyft Driver

Inspired by Paul Cantor’s “36 Things I Learned From The Cleaning Lady”

2 min readOct 24, 2017

She’s on time.
She has an accent.
She drives a very clean Toyota Prius Hybrid.
She thinks the GPS suggested route is wrong and feels like there’s a better route.
It’s been a slow day for her.
I’m her second passenger of the day.
She feels like she’s too talkative.
She’s self-conscious about it.
She wonders if other Lyft drivers are as talkative as she is.
She hopes I’m comfortable.
She’s from India.
She’s been driving Lyft for a year and a half.
She’s a single mother.
She’s driving Lyft to pay for her daughter’s education.
This is her only job.
She used to feel self-conscious about “being a driver,” because in India it’s not considered a respected job. But she doesn’t feel that way anymore.
She’s proud of what she does.
She’s doing this for her daughter.
She wants her daughter to have a better life than she had.
She hopes she gets more passengers today.
She insists on opening the door for me when we arrive at my destination.