I am the young adult who takes your order, who brings you your food and cleans up the mess you leave behind. And even though I do all of this with the biggest smile I can that does not necessarily mean I enjoy the way you talk to me, or even talk to your table about me.

I am not stupid, and I do not appreciate you implying that I am when you tell your children to stay in school or they are going to be me one day. I may laugh at your jokes when you call me little lady and make sexiest remarks but I really would rather list all the ways you way of thinking is ruining society.

An you are the reason I some times hate my job, because if you would talk to me as if I was a real person like some of our other customers you would learn that I am in college. That I am pursuing two majors and am looking in to graduate school programs in both of my majors. You would know that I am the leader of multiple groups and that I intern teaching high school student theatre. You would learn that I have spent almost every summer since I started high school volunteering with my neighborhoods recreational sports league.

I am a lot more than the person who drops off your food and picks up your plates. Nor am I just a pretty face for you to entertain yourself with when I pass by your table. Daily I balance my classes, my sorority leadership role, my internship, two jobs on top of my social life and my family life. I should not have to balance your ideas of me as well.

It is not fair to me, nor any other working adult, for you to assume that we have a lower IQ because we don't have a "real" job. And it is not ok for you to try and "win" my number while I am working, the only reason I am paying you any attention is because this is my job. This pays my bills for school and pays for my books and supplies that I need. I realize I may work in a place mostly consisting of "upper-middle class" but that does not give you the right to treat me like dirt.

I work so that I can pay for my own schooling, so that my parents do not have to worry about where the money is coming from. I work so that I can help my parent pay any bills that they may not have all the money for in that moment, and they may tell me that I don't need to worry about them and that they will get it all figured out but I have seen them struggle but I do not want to watch them try to figure it out anymore if I can help them even a little bit.

So even if I have a million customers a day who act just like you I will smile my biggest smile and act as if it's alright because my parent mean more than what little respect you have for me.