As a college student I discovered that I needed to make money, you know to somehow supplement my addiction to shopping and going out at least three times every week. One day I added up the amount of money that I had been spending on cover charges alone. Ten dollars every Tuesday and Thursday for three months straight. A solitary tear escaped it's duct and landed on my calculator. How were my parents not questioning the 80 dollars a month that I was pulling out of the ATM? If I were them I would have just assumed I was addicted to some illegal substance. Lucky for them I was just addicted to the dive bar next to campus. Good ole CDB's.

I digress. I needed a job. I worked in retail in high school and it was legitimately the bain of my existence. I spent the majority of the time hiding in the dressing rooms and taking frequent bathroom breaks. I knew not to schedule myself during back to school season. Have you ever been to Old Navy the week before school starts? There are just mountains of colorful collared shirts that the customers flippantly threw to the ground as their children run circles around their ankles. I am the poor sap that had to pick them up, fold them and return them to their respective stack. I refused to go back.

This is when I decided becoming a waitress was the path for me. I worked at a sports bar and felt right at home. It was kind of like the dive bar that I had been spending all my time at. I felt right at home. In case you haven't worked in the service industry, base pay is something like 4 dollars and hour and comes out to even less than that after taxes. One week my pay check was 15 dollars. I get paid biweekly.

Luckily for me I am good at making tips. I am sure you have read articles like, Don't Hate Me, I'm Just the Waitress. It is true we take a lot of abuse. the trick is getting that customer to see you as an actual human being.

We are there to make your dining experience as pleasant as possible but there are some things that are out of our control. So when there is something wrong with the food or when a fight breaks out at the bar, the customer will understand that your livelihood comes from that tip they are going to leave and it is simply not your fault that there is a lady screaming at a television three feet away from them.

So how do you get them to see you as more than just the robot delivering their food? Tell them about yourself. Sure, there are some people that just want to eat and get the hell out of there, in which case your turning that table fast so don't even waste your time. Read the situation and if you have this table for the long haul strike up as much of a conversation as you can while you take their drink order.

Drop a fun fact about yourself whenever possible. "Hey folks, I'm Chelsea, I'll be your server tonight. What can I get you to drink?" One customer said "I'll have a coke but my wife and her friend over here are alcoholics so..." and I said "That's what my boyfriend tells people about me! I recommend a Mudslide or any of our other spiked milkshakes. It is the best of both worlds. Dessert and alcohol." They all laughed and ended up leaving me a nice tip even though there was a gentleman near them that fell off of his barstool because he was that drunk.

When horrible things like this happen, try your best to make light of the situation. We had to call the cops on a patron once and all of my tables were very concerned, so my line for that night was "Sometimes I forget if I work at a restaurant or an insane asylum."

Try and talk about the fact that you are in college as well. It helps if they know you have something productive to pay for. It is ~totally~ not for your tab at happy hour this Friday.