“Hey guys, welcome to the Station House. Enjoy.” It’s the first thing I say to customers at my restaurant.

I’m one of the first people they see, even though I’m a busser. We bussers bring bread and bruchettea to every table, or as many as we can. I never knew what bussers actually did and I give them so much more credit now that I know first hand what we do.

It’s a love/hate relationship I have with my job. I love what I do and I’m making money, but it’s draining. It’s honestly the best first actual job, and I’m very thankful to have my job.

For the past two years I’ve tried getting a job.

Some places I tried harder than others, but never got the job, which I feel has brought me to this restaurant. I always said I would never work in a restaurant and tried to steer clear of them, but my friend’s mom sent a group message to the senior girls small group [youth group] saying they were in need of help at this restaurant. It took me two weeks to actually go in. I was actually visiting my dad and had to drive there from Loxahatchee. The nerves were running high on my way there.

I filled out my application, my friend Jordyn took it to the manager, and then I was interviewed. After I left an interview that I felt genuinely proud of, I got a text from Jordyn telling me that they put me on the schedule to train later on that week. My dad, his girlfriend, and my grandma freaked out along side me as well.

It was such a relief knowing I finally had a job and that I could be more independent with money again. I babysat my cousins Monday-Friday over the summer and made a lot of money from that. The money lasted until January. There wasn’t much left, but knowing there was something left was nice.

It’s so much nicer now that I’m making my own money. I paid off $260 for my Mexico trip for over the summer. There are more payments to come, but doing that myself was amazing. Also, once my birthday comes I will be getting my own phone plan as well as a new phone, so another sense of responsibility there.

Juggling work and school is both easy and hard. I get everything necessary done, then go to work and do what I need to do there. The only down side about juggling both would be how tired I am the next day. All the lifting and walking always tires me out, sometimes to the point I ask to stay home, or I come to school and see if I can leave early because I’m so tired and can’t focus.

Even through the days where I think I can’t focus, I am still doing well in school. This was something my mom was worried about. She didn’t know if I could handle both school and work and I think I’ve done a pretty good job proving her wrong.

I love what I do and being able to help my family pay for things at times is nice too because I want to give back to the people who made so many sacrifices for me.