Pay it Forward

It's not all bad. For as many crazies as I have encountered in my days of waiting tables, I have certainly met a fair share of incredible characters as well. My last post about the drunk, ass slapping, jerk that stumbled into my Friday night so many years ago prompted me to think about a positive story to share.

I'm a big believer in signs from the Universe. Every now and then I'm shown something that restores my faith in the world. It was my last shift at the serving job I had forever in college. It was my second home. I had grown to love my boss like a best friend, and some of my customers were like second family.

It was a busy lunch service and I'm running around doing my thing. I was the only waitress taking care of a place that had about 20 tables. It seemed overwhelming at first but with some time I could literally do it in my sleep (in fact I often did in my sleep..aka "waitmares." that is a whole other story.) I love being busy. Not only did it help the shift pass quickly, I raked in some amazing money

To paraphrase an old story I wrote for Go Girl Magazine;

 I had a table of regulars come in and hunker down at their usual booth. It was a mother, father and their daughter. I never knew their names or what their life was like. I just knew that they enjoyed eating our food from time to time. At the next booth over there was a gentleman sitting by himself. I had never seen him before. He was simple; ordered his food and kept to himself, the kind of customer a busy waitress enjoys.

When it came time for me to ring this gentleman up, he told me he wanted to pay for the table next to him. I added the slips together and found myself with a pretty generous tip from the guy as well. Before he could make his way to the door I walked over to him, shook his hand and thanked him for the kind gesture. He looked at me and all he said was “pay it forward.” Of course after he left I told the table of regulars that their meal was taken care of for the afternoon, that the stranger sitting next to them covered it. They were shocked, and seemed to be very grateful.

 It's so easy to become isolated in our problems. The day in and day out of working the same job and sometimes not always getting treated with kindness or even dignity, can really get under your skin. It can be tough putting on a good face when all you want to do is run out back and cry. But every now and then someone makes up for it and reminds you why you do what you do. Waiting tables is not glamorous by and means...but you get to see people in some pretty intimate settings. Who knows who that guy was the came in and acted our a random kind gesture. I never saw him again. And I never forgot the story.

Pay it forward and keep a good attitude. You never know who is going to walk into your section.

http://littleredelf.com/geniuswaitress.html