The thing about me is,
I do actually care about people.
I always feel selfishly aggravated when I go to work; I tend to start the day off thinking about my own personal problems, as I’m sure a lot of us do. I just feel tired and ugly and like my life has no purpose.
After I’ve put my apron on and calmed down, I start to look at the people around me, the customers.
And when someone comes up to the counter and has absolutely no idea what is going on anywhere, I am so very happy to help. Because I have compassion. I whole heatedly understand and I try my best to escape the cliche of the “snobby barista.” Granted, I tend to get snobby sometimes - only when I’m dealing with idiots. But generally, I do care!
I get sad when a co worker starts taking orders from people only to make the line go faster - caring zero to none about that humans personal well being. I love helping people decide what to order, even if there are a million people in line behind them. Cause that’s life. These people, they wake up and they get dressed and they walk around and they decide they want to get something to drink - whether it be coffee or tea or a smoothie or just water. And they come into Starbucks and they stand in line and they have so many other things going on in their world that they can’t even decide between vanilla and caramel. So I breathe. I ask them very patiently, step by step, what they want. “Would you like something to drink? …Do you want tea or coffee? …you feeling iced or hot? Sweet or bland? Etc” and after hardly any time at all they know what they’re getting and they feel calm and cared for. It’s so simple. Rushing or panicking does no good. I am trying to remind myself of this fact more.
All this to say, I got a comment at work today: someone took a survey and commented on my politeness and genuine spirit. I felt valued and pretty and like even in that small task, my life had purpose.
The end.
