Coming into summer, I knew I needed a job. With rent and sorority dues approaching fast, I wanted a way to help my parents pay for all the college expenses that kept adding up as the year progressed.
It was about a week into my job search when I brought up the idea of working for Agave, a local restaurant down the street from my neighborhood. Not only was this restaurant a 10-minute drive from my house, but it was owned by the same two men who took care of my dad and step-mom's wedding back in 2008 and I had always dreamed of working for them.
I saw my step mom's eyes light up with excitement and together we went to eat lunch and ask for an application. Who knew that our server that day, Tracey, would continue to make a huge impact on me. During that short period of time, she did everything in her power to make me feel comfortable as she handed me an application and prepped me for the interview she had scheduled me for the next day.
Her kindness and generosity didn't stop there.
My first day of work rolls around and I, of course, show up wearing the wrong attire for the job. After getting scolded by the manager and being told to "just do something," I was just about ready to cry from the fast paced restaurant world that I had just stepped into. Looking around, I was so intimidated by all the other employees around me dressed in their black button downs and aprons that I didn’t have on.
I would soon find out that these weren’t people I should have been intimidated by, but they were people I would become to admire.
I have to admit, the restaurant business is weird. It brings you into an group of wonderfully diverse people who surprise you with everything they say or do. Maybe they were not friends before, and maybe they won't be friends after the job is finished; however, they are friends while the job is getting done.
The team setting a restaurant portrays is such a beneficial atmosphere to put yourself. It teaches you to be supportive of your team, organized so you don't get lost in what you are doing, work hard to receive the best results, and thankful for your team that helps you get the job done.
Someone who works in the restaurant business is constantly reliable for their actions and learns that it doesn't only effect them, but the entire team. Your team lifts you up and not only are you expected to lift others up as well, but you want to because you've grown to love them so much.
Everyone should work in the restaurant business for at least some portion of their life due to the countless lessons that can be learned from simply the people around you. It has completely changed my perspective of life and has opened my eyes for the better.
The learnings last a life time and the friendships have the opportunity to last a life time as well.
When I left Agave Rio at the end of the summer, I cried. You do not cry for the people you casually know, but you cry for the people that mean the most to you.
I have learned so much from these people from simple restaurant techniques to life chats and everything in between. I doubt they have any idea how much I admire and adore them for all that they are and all that they have taught me in the past 3 months.
They are best team I could have ever asked to be apart of, and I am better for being surround by them.
That's what the restaurant business has taught me and I am forever thankful.
