Unemployment

Today is the 4th of July. This morning, while everyone else in this country was waking up with a hang over or getting an early start on the one they'll have tomorrow, I was at work. Where do I work, you might ask? Well, I work at this great little local restaurant called Scotty B's where the food is always good and the company even better.

I hope you sense the sarcasm in my writing.

If not, well, that was sarcastic.

I have been working as a waitress at this place for the past three years. Getting a job at 14 in a restaurant is not something I would suggest to anyone, really. Restaurants have this amazing way of drawing in some of the most dysfunctional people, all under one unfortunate roof, and allowing them to co mingle. Quite frankly, I'm surprised I got a job there considering the fact that I don't A) experiment with a wide range of illegal substances, B) frequent a local jail cell, or C) have a highly unstable family life. Don't get me wrong, I love most of the people I work with, most of them are just very different from me. Fraternizing with people like this at 14 opens your eyes to a world of human and chemical interaction that my fairly sheltered mind had not yet explored, and it definitely forced me to mature more quickly than many of my friends. Meeting the people I have at Scotty's has made me realize how similar we all are, no matter where life has happened to take us. We all want the same things: money, acceptance, appreciation, friendship. We just go about it in different ways and working at Scotty's has helped me recognize that and appreciate it.
This post is not titled 'Unemployment' for no reason, however. This morning, after three long years, I finally called it quits and put in my two week's notice. While I grew to love the staff at Scotty's, there was no way for me to grow to love the demeaning way in which my bosses constantly treated me. Generally, my achievements and improvements went unnoticed and unrewarded while my shortcomings were quickly noted and scorned. My failure was always anticipated, even before I had the chance to succeed and my intelligence meant nothing if I didn't have my food out of the window and onto the tables fast enough.
I understand that the job I was working was a minimum wage, minimum requirements job, however I don't think anyone deserves to be treated the way I was, no matter what they're getting paid per hour. Every human deserves respect and if we don't demand it from people then they'll walk all over us. I know I'm better than the way they made me feel every night when I left work, and I know that I can't put up with it anymore, not even for the year I have left in Minnesota. I owe it to myself to not let anyone make me feel less than what I am, even if that means that I'll have to stop going to the hair salon and buy all my clothes on the clearance racks. If there's one thing that my mom has taught me (and the woman has taught me a lot) it's how to live on next to nothing until you get your feet back on the ground. No amount of humiliation is worth the extra money, even if that means I'll have to hold my highlight-free head high and proudly walk up and down the aisles of Good Will. I don't need fancy clothing or hairstyles to show that I'm confident in myself and my abilities. So while unemployment looms in my near future, I can rest easy in knowing that today truly is Independence Day.