You Are Going Places

It was another dreary and gloomy day. I had come home from school, changed my clothes and got ready for work. I work at a local restaurant in town as a cashier, seater and busser.

I went to work feeling down and out. And to make matters worse I was bussing that evening. It's the same thing over and over again. Dealing with customers who complain and whine about their food, where they are sat and how the piece of pie that they are served is too big or too small. Little things like that tend annoy a lot of our employees but we all learn to deal with it. Some days it is annoying but you just get used to I guess. I know I have.

Three elderly ladies walked in and were sat at a booth by the windows. It happened to be the very spot near where I bus and keep the dirty dishes in the bins. I was bussing since 5:00pm and we were quite busy. Trying to keep up with all the dirty tables, people leaving and coming in and servers running all over the house, it was crazy. But these elderly women were watching how I was bussing and working really hard to make sure every table was clean and ready for the next customers.

When they were finished with their meals, I took their plates back to the kitchen. They talked to me for awhile about school, how I was doing, what grade I was in and what I planned to do in the future.

As they were leaving, they walked past me and one of them said to me in a confident and gentle voice, "You are going places." And that was it. They left the restaurant and I was pretty much in awe. I had tears in my eyes, because they gave me reason to believe in myself. They picked my spirit up from being down and out and gave me a reason to keep on working hard and to give it my all.

People used to tell me that I couldn't have a career in television until I had a degree and was out of college. I'm now an executive producer and co-anchor of a student-produced television show. I just finished an internship at a local television station this past summer. And the best thing is, I'm only 17 years old and I am a senior in high school.