Stress and sips from a working student:

Albany, NY

Spring semester long gone and with summer rolling around, there’s so much enthusiasm among my peers. Whether it’s traveling abroad, chilling, or so much more for anyone who just completed finals. However in my case, there’s no traveling plans in my schedule. I came back home to basically work at my family’s restaurant and make enough money for my second year at college. It wasn’t what I wanted but I knew my family is dependent on me to help them out and I am dependent on them to help me take another step into my future.

With COVID-19 still lingering around, the restaurant is severely understaffed and I pitched in with waitressing few days a week and sometimes up to 6 days a week for about 10 hours a day. Recently I have to keep a pack of blister medications on my desk when I come home from work, so the blisters on my feet aren't very painful. At first I thought just working would be a piece of cake; however,I realized working in the food service is a different kind of stress from academic stress.

Being able to effectively communicate with guests, handle multiple tactile tasks, memorize specific orders, and manage my own timing were all many of the most stressful tasks to accomplish, and that is something I couldn’t perform well at all. Maybe I can memorize several drink orders but my timing is slow. There’s no “fixed schedule” I can follow along to.

Time moves so slow and I always think to myself, “literally what the literal ****? I JUST SERVED FOUR TABLES AND CLEANED THE MESS THAT THESE CUSTOMERS LEFT BEHIND AND ONLY 3 MINUTES HAD PASSED?”

The tipping system is literally terrible especially with older people who can’t tip at all. Oftentimes, from a group of 4 older people (majority of our customers are of seniority), the average tip I receive from them is 4 dollars for a 80 dollar buffet meal. Sometimes they won’t tip and give me excuses like “Sorry darling, I don’t got enough cash in my bank to tip you” then proceed to buy 20 dollars more worth of food as take-out. At the end of the day, I feel so slumped. I always dread that when I wake up tomorrow, I might have to cover a coworker’s all-day shift. I always think, “God I should’ve done Summer 1 classes instead of moving back home for 4 months,” and there’s a seeping pressure on my chest whenever I go on my social media and see my friends and peers travelling around the world and I’m just stuck waitressing at a restaurant.

I’m only 3 weeks in and there’s a long way to go before I move back to Boston; however, I got to make the best of my situation. Looking at the brighter side, I noticed waitressing has done a lot for me to grow out of my comfort zone. Interpersonal communication, time management, and even getting my daily steps in were all I was very much able to learn to accomplish. These are all very important features that I and many people will need once they set into the real world. And I do get free Starbucks from my coworkers every morning. Iced chai latte with soy milk; venti please. It’s not much, but for me it’s something small that keeps me going. Still, food service jobs are not slay at all. If I had a chance of doing another summer job, I would be tutoring.

For now, I take the small positives from the very much horrendous job and look forward to seeing these positives again and again.

- Ivy