Society has a funny way of placing pressure on our life structure without even realizing it. We spend 12 years monotonously going through the daily life of elementary, middle, and high school. 12 years of classes, exams, changing social groups, and placement tests to help us get into the best college possible. During the final few years of high school, advisors and teachers start gearing students toward engaging in more extracurricular activities to make them more marketable to colleges. They start forcing us to discover what we want to do with our lives. What do we want to dedicate our next four years of study to? What career path do we want to take after that?

I have news: we are 17 years old. We have no idea what we want to do.

But that’s alright; we’ll go through the motions and choose a college and a major and hope that something comes up during those four years of undergrad that will launch us into the next stage of our lives.

Some of us find that college isn’t for us. We transfer and change our major countless times only to find out that school just is not actually in our life plan and we find something else to occupy our time. Society judges us and says that we should have gotten a degree because “it’s the only way to get a good job these days.”

Another group of us does, by some miraculous act of God, finish college with few-hundred-thousand-dollar degree, are in immense debt, and realize upon graduation that we have no idea what we actually want to do.

If you’re anything like me, during your college years, you found yourself working at a coffee shop to make a few extra bucks on the weekends or days off. It seemed like something to do at the time, but now that you’re not in school, it’s become your full time job while you start looking for something “real” to do.

You feel content and comfortable with your job; that is, until you are in a group setting and you go round-table to hear about who is an account manager here and who has a high-paying marketing position there, and when the conversation gets to you, all you have to offer is “I work at a café.”

All eyes are on you. Why did you spend all this money to only work at a coffee shop out of graduation? Don’t you want more? How are you making money? Your parents encourage you to get your crap together and figure out what’s next; “what are you going to do in real life though?” Regardless of such comments, you’re satisfied with where you are.

What does that mean anyway? Getting a “real” job? This is a real job. You spend every day meeting new people and being the person to start their morning. You host guests in what has become your home, allowing them to stay as long as they’d like to do work or have meetings or just catch up with an old friend.

You feel completely content with what you are doing. You finally got over the fact that you don’t have a salaried job like most of the kids you graduated with and realize, this is what makes you happy in life. You’ll get around to finding a job in your degree one day, but for now you’re happy.

Most people don’t understand the sincere gratification that we get by serving people every day. But it’s more than that: we start their days. We give them someone to talk to or share a part of their lives with. You know their order, ask about their kids, basically know their entire work schedule and get concerned when a day passes without seeing those regulars. It's a community that not only do you feel grateful to be a part of, but one that you are creating for and welcoming others.

There is so much pressure to "figure out your life," but allow yourself this time to take care of others, and embrace it. Without realizing it, you are actually taking care of yourself. Your mind is clear and you can spend time actively planning your next move.

So don't be ashamed of your "little cafe job," you're changing lives one foam heart at a time.