For the past two years, I’ve had three jobs in the food industry. My first one was inside a giant ice cream cone, the second one was serving at sports stadiums as a temporary worker and my current one is at a cookie shop. I have experienced many customers yelling at me for things that people wouldn’t typically get yelled at for. At the sports stadium, I had angry people following me with a hot dog in their hand as I had to go find ketchup at a place I’ve never been before. I spilled all the ketchup on my khaki pants when I tried to refill the container. Little did they know it was my first day and I was a temporary worker. I can easily say at all three jobs, customers made me feel less of the person I am. I’ve had endless customers roll their eyes at me and constantly disrespect me for about $8 an hour, and that doesn’t include taxes.

People talk down to me at work for things that are out of my control. Like, how I can’t disclose our cookie recipes, because that’s the point of our business. The lady who wanted the recipe threatened to call corporate, because my actions were “inexcusable.” So, I gave her the number as she left. I have no control over those things, but I get blamed for them. I am a complete stranger to these people, but since I am wearing an apron and serving them, it gives them the right to treat me like less of a person. So, here is my response to them.

I am an average college student who has to spend my summers working in order to be able to have fun during the school year. I am taking summer classes, babysitting and working at a cookie shop part-time. Most of the time, I leave babysitting, go straight to work and do homework when I get home. My summer isn’t as relaxing as I wish it was, I’m almost as busy as I was during the school year. So, I have a life outside of work. I am a normal busy human being, who has responsibilities. My life isn’t the cookie shop, and it wasn’t the ice cream shop either. I have goals in life and I don’t want to work at dessert places forever, but so what if I was? No matter if the person serving your food is in college or not, they are doing something to better themselves. You don’t know them, or their struggle, so be kind to them.

These food industry jobs aren’t desirable, and not many people want to serve food, but my jobs taught me the value of money and taxes. They taught me how to bite my tongue to stop myself from saying something back to customers that make me feel inhuman. They taught me respect for other workers and to always be kind to them. I became more patient and compassionate when I dine out because I know that people are mean to them most of the time. And I know how one overly kind customer can help me survive the rest of my shift. Be that one overly kind person, because, trust me, the workers do not want to be there.