As a bystander or customer, I think you'd be surprised with what I've learned in my short amount of time bartending. Aside from making drinks, I've learned a lot, especially being a young bartender. And by a lot, I mean life lessons I wouldn't learn if I was older, we'll say beyond 35. I've learned more than just how to make drinks I haven't heard of yet, how to deal with drunk customers, old guys creeping on my butt, or just crabby, rude, impatient customers in general yelling at me to hurry up while I'm up to my neck in orders. I've learned how to proceed through life in the easiest ways possible. For every "regular" I encounter, I learn of a story. A new story that proves to me my life isn't as bad as I think it is. I see divorced men come in, widowed ones. I then realize, my recent breakup could be a lot worse of a situation. I see recovering alcoholics come in and only drink water and that shows me that it's okay to hang out in a bar and not drink. I respect those people more as I imagine that something, no matter how big or small, something happened to them in their life to make them stop drinking. I’ve seen washed up older gentlemen come in and drink for hours until they decide to go home. Some of them avoiding empties houses, some avoiding full houses, some just avoiding life. And each person that I see, I can’t help but wonder what brought them this point in their lives. A point where their second home is the bar and a bottle as I’m bartending for extra cash and about to endure a college degree and a second home in another town and in some sense, hoping not to turn out like them if things get complicated. I’ve learned that the truth with life is really there is no plan. It doesn’t matter what you want to do or how you get there. All of our parents tell us this over and over while society makes us think we need to have a plan when we’re 15, but to hear it from a complete stranger that it doesn’t matter, well that… that right there sticks to me. It’s amazing that a complete stranger can sit and talk to you about their life, your life, whether good or bad, that’s also something I’ve learned. Each person you meet has gone through something that you may or may never experience or understand, and it makes you appreciate your life but also yourself. Your life because it reminds you that things can always be worse and yourself because there, sitting in front of you, is some older person who sees something in you that makes them trust you to be the one they vent to. That’s an honorable feeling. I’ve seen people come in to purchase dinner for the firefighters who were fighting a fire at a home, I’ve seen young kids sit for hours in the bar while their parents drink and talk to other regulars, I’ve seen bar fights, breakups, I’ve seen older couples come for breakfast every Sunday after church or every Friday for the fish fry and younger couples who come in for one drink to bond before they head over to the next place on their Harley. Through each encounter I remember how lucky I am. How lucky I am to have a home, good parents, good friends, a good boyfriend, and those cute couples remind me that love really can exist until the end. Being a bartender has opened my eyes to a lot of different situations in life, some good and some bad, but each leaving me with a lesson I will remember as I pursue through life.