I was sixteen years old, had my drivers license in one hand my keys in the other and an empty wallet in my back pocket. Ever since I started driving my cash disappeared fast from buying food, to filling up my 2003 chevy suburban up, and going out to movies with my friends. After repentantly asking my mom and dad, alternating weeks of course, for cash, they began to get a bit irritated. They would continue to supply money for food and what not, but I needed to get a job if I planned on living the way I was. I didn't think it would be too bad working while in school. Twenty hours a week couldn't be that bad right?
I applied to several places, keeping my fingers crossed each time I submitted my application. Jamba Juice wouldn't accept me because I was only 16, Journey's for kids told me since I didn't have any experience I was basically worthless, and Denny's never called me back. The only place that I had a chance with was Denny's. I called them back three times and checked up on the status of my application. Finally on the third call, the manager set up an interview. I got the job after the interview and they gave me and apron and said be ready to start training right away.
Working at Denny's was an experience I'll never forget. Being a server, I only got paid $2.13 an hour, and the rest I had to earn through tips. It didn't matter how hard I worked, how many tables I bussed, or floors I vacuumed, If my tables didn't feel generous enough to leave me more than two dollars, I wouldn't make the cut of minimum wage. My manager would get upset with me if I couldn't make at least 7.25 an hour because then the restaurant would be obligated to fill in the gaps of my empty pay check. It was stressful trying to make the cut when I only had1-2 tables an hour.
Because I was the youngest server at the restaurant, I was given the slowest shift-- swing shift. These were the hours that hardly anyone came to Denny's to eat, and the severs who made the least amount of sales were given these shifts. Because I had no experience I was placed here with two other servers, Kristin and Tony. Kristin and Tony both never have had a real job outside the restaurant business. Kristin was 25, single, and had a 3 year old baby girl. She would grab tables as soon as a customer walked in the door, even taking some away from me. She worked paycheck to paycheck, tips to tips in order to survive.
Being so young and coming from an overall nice family, I was a bit oblivious to what some people had to struggle through in order to survive. While I was here trying to earn and save a little extra cash to spend on fun stuff, she was here to make a living, feed her baby girl, and to supply money for her drug addiction. I always thought she acted stranger during work, but it never was apparent to me that she was either tweaking out on crystal meth or high on pain killers until she asked me to watch a table for her so she could meet her drug dealer behind the Denny's building. She said, "I'm coming down hard right now, my drug dealers out back, watch my table for me I'll be back in 5." It all clicked, I had been working with a hard drug addict at Denny's all along. I then began thinking about Kristin's little girl. I couldn't imagine growing up with a mother who is addicted to crystal meth and hydro codon. It made me sad because I liked Kristin, even though she was a bit strange, and I wanted to help her, but there was nothing I could really do.
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