The lady that made me keep my waitressing job
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This happened on the second day that I worked in the restaurant I’ve been working at for over two years now. Right now, I know that I want to keep doing this kind of work for the rest of my life. I love my job, I love the atmosphere, I love the work. But I honestly think if it weren’t for this woman, I would’ve been completely discouraged to continue my work there.
The very first day I worked there, I had had a very rough way. I didn’t feel like this work was for me. Honestly, I felt like quitting right there and then. So my second day, I come into work and at this point I’ve only ever been a runner and I see that I have a bar shift. Now, I know that I am quite good at picking up things, but bad at mastering them so I was terrified.
What made this whole thing worse is that my manager helped me and at one point he told me: “Oh, and don’t worry about dropping glass or something. It happens all the time.” Those words signed my faith. That sounds dramatic, but imagine this anxious, slightly depressed seventeen year old shaking with nerves because she has to carry glass on a tray a little bigger than a dinner plate and she has to keep it balanced. That shit terrified me more than the bar shift itself did.
But as I said, I’m quite good at picking up things so after about an hour or so I had gained some confidence.
And then the ticket of doom came in.
Two glasses of white wine and three glasses of red wine.
The restaurant I work at doesn’t pour the glasses at the table, just to make that clear, so I had to carry them on a tray. Everyone who has ran drinks knows that wine glasses, martini glasses, anything that lifts the balance point of the glass a considerable amount above the tray is not the easiest thing to do. It feels like you’re carrying nothing and a lot at the same time.
So I went over to the table of these really nice people in they mid forties and put down the glasses of white wine, but as I was putting down the second glass of white wine I tipped the trey against one man’s shoulder, making it tip over.
Three glasses of red wine poured over the back of the woman sitting next to him and I could not have been more ashamed or apologetic. I was terrified of how angry they might be. Mind you that this woman wasn’t wearing black or something, she was wearing a baby blue cardigan. I ran to get a towel right away, but when I came back with the towel the woman stopped me and gently laid her hand on my arm.
She told me it was okay, said that I was doing a great job and that I should try again with the next glasses of wine I would bring them. It really calmed me down that she wasn’t angry at me.
When they left, I went back to the table one last time to apologize and the woman just... hugged me. I remember exactly what she said. She told me that I shouldn’t worry too much about it and that she owns a restaurant. She sees this all the time and she hoped so badly that I wouldn’t quit.
She really gave me some more confidence and God knows I needed it because the next day I worked was on the first day of Christmas.
Now, two years later, I am in school to become a hotel/restaurant manager or owner, I’ve been working for two years in that same restaurants as well as having worked at a few other restaurants, and I am taking an exam in a few days to start my way to becoming a sommelier.
I wish I could meet her again and thank her for the confidence she granted me in my way of finding what I was made to do. Thanks to her I have spend many happy memories at the restaurant I work at.
Yesterday, I just happened to think of her again, as I regularly do, because I was having a blast at work. Guests left early so me and my colleague put on music really loudly while we cleaned. We had so much fun and laughed so much. I wouldn’t have befriended her if I had quit that very day.
I am just so grateful for that woman and I hope to be a person like that for someone else at one point of my life.
