In this life, as a human, we love to eat out. I’m not sure if it is scientific, but I like to run around and tell people the reason they love to go out and pay for a meal they could have easily cooked up at home and spent a fraction of the cost is because that when someone serves it to you or makes it for you it taste better. Maybe that’s not scientific but in my mind I'd like to think that the experience and the environment makes the meal better, your brain thinks that you didn’t have to work for it so it’s a treat. Your taste buds tickle with delight at your favorite meal being handed to you at a restaurant or favorite cup of coffee at Starbucks.

With experiences like these its all made possible by the workers within the restaurant. With out the owners, cooks, general managers, servers, and hosts the convenience of having a home cooked meal out of home is null and void. So with that in mind I always try to be at my most pleasant when going to eat out because I am being catered to. I also say this because I have three waitressing jobs, of which two I am currently working as much as possible. The other is a restaurant back in my hometown that I pick up shifts at whenever I am home longer than a week. But I have been on the other side of the serving tray, so I empathize with those serving me.

In deciding to write this I had just gotten home from working a double and staying an extra hour until about midnight or so from serving tables that didn’t understand that I was a person, too. Now every now and again I do have customers out of the ordinary that truly make my day. But with so many average to disturbingly disappointing guests I have to unveil the harsh realities of the serving world. Now, I am sure many think, “Well why don’t you just get another job if you want to complain so much?” And while that is an excellent point I'd like to point out that there are only so many part time jobs that acknowledge I am also a college student or will take someone with just waitressing experience. I have applied for jobs ranging from housekeeper on a private estate to a dog groomer, and the only jobs I can seem to land with my experience are in the food service industry.

Now I highly recommend a serving job or a customer service job for at least a year. It is a humbling experience and also makes you realize how respectable people in these positions for a lifetime are. You come to learn the harsh realization that everyone can be mean, an ice water can be made wrong and no matter how hard you try to please somebody you can never quite be good enough. The life lessons I have come across in the restaurants I have worked in are valuable, eye opening and are a very real world that we live in. People love themselves and do assume the world revolves around them, and in the position of serving you g along with it and help them believe that. Because in the end, they are paying you and if the guests don’t like your every move, it is quite frankly “coming out of the tip.”

Somehow it's become socially acceptable to disrespect the workers in a restaurant. To tell a cook there dish is disgusting or it tastes "wrong." To tell a waiter or waitress that "they will not pay for this" even though they've worked there hardest to serve you. Literally serve you; we are being your servants for $2.13 an hour, which mainly goes towards taxes, and the rest is up to the guests. Many don’t realize that their tip is what servers rely on, and in some cases they have to put out a tip share for host or hostesses and bus boys. I count on this money to pay bills but I have come across many a coworker who is dependent off of the money they make in the restaurant to survive—they make a living off of that $2.00 on a $50.00 check you left behind. For me this is temporary, for others this is the rest of their life.

When it comes down to it I guess it is silly for me to be offended by a number you wrote on a piece of paper after I have had to interact with you and pretend to be pals with you, which in any other given situation is weird for strangers to act this way. But I do get offended. It is like a slap to the face when I am left a handful of nickels and dimes that I do collect, since every penny counts. Sometimes I laugh when people try to make numbers even, for example I have had checks be like $30.49 and people will tip $2.51, like they need to keep numbers in their bank account even. Sometimes I get little notes or even books from churches as tips. Occasionally I do get a phone number that I actually don’t get to keep, even if I wanted to, since servers have to turn in the signed receipts at the end of every shift. It is frustrating to go home after a six or seven-hour shift and only have $20 in your pocket, but that’s just the server life I guess. When the end of a shift rolls around your feet ache, you’re hungry after feeding so many, and your whole body is numb from running around the restaurant all day. In its entirety, waitressing is fun for the social and entertaining aspect, but is hard work.

My final advice is that eating out is a privilege, so treat it as such. Humble yourself and respect your servers, and enjoy that scientifically tasty dessert you deserve.