About six months ago, I made a very difficult decision. For the previous eight months, I’d spent a ridiculous amount of time, money, and energy into trying to start my own business. When I’d started my little venture, things moved excruciatingly slow. Much more so than I’d anticipated. But after about five months of basically begging agents to work with me, I was finally able to get a few to invest in what I attempting to do. After that, the business started to pick up. Little by little, agents started to catch wind and I was able to get a lot of momentum.
Then my mother died.
When that happened, everything changed for me. Literally. My entire world views shifted and all I began to care about was making the world a better place to honor her. So, as you all know by now, I gave up on my business and started writing. With (in hindsight) an absurd amount of work and a lot of luck, I was fortunate enough to land a publishing deal. So, knowing I’d have to wait for the publishing process to play out, I decided to finally do something I’d wanted to do for a very long time – work in a restaurant.
Here’s the part that annoys me. I was raised, in what I can unfortunately not find a better way to describe, a rigidly judgmental family. At least on my father’s side (I’ve made it quite clear my mom was basically a saint that loved everyone). Growing up, I was always told that there is a very narrow path to success – higher education and a “respectable” career. Now, while I can see their point of view, I’ve grown to see things in a much different way.
Which brings me back to my point. I’ve met some of the absolute best people I’ve ever known throughout my time at Longhorn. Which, according to what elitists would say, is the inverse of what is to be expected. And I say that with 100% honesty. I don’t mean to offend anyone (much the opposite in fact), but I’ve learned that the hard truth is that there are so many people out there that look down on people who work in the service industry. Not only have I learned that from part of my own family, but I see it every day when I’m at work serving people.
The good news is that there are an equal amount of genuine, quality souls that I’ve had the opportunity to meet. Possibly even more than the bad ones. But this experience truly has given me a perspective that I otherwise never would have been able to adopt.
So to everyone out there who’s served or works in an environment where they have to deal with pretentious jerks – I hope you realize how important you are. I hope you take the moral high ground and simply wave the negativity away.
Be the better person and don’t let them get to you. Karma, as the saying goes…is a bitch.
How the World Should Work 