%20, Not 20 Cents

     Always tip your server. If you do not have money to tip, then why are you going out to eat? Fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for yourself next time you hear your tummy growl. If there is anything that deserves to be on the inside of a fortune cookie, it is the life lesson to over tip a waitress, delivery driver, or bartender.

     It frustrates me more than anything when customers tell me to “keep the change” after handing me a 20 dollar bill on a $19.53 check. You are so sweet to provide me with 47 cents tonight following me waiting on your every hand and foot to assure that you don’t run out of ketchup for your five dollar burger. I understand totally that being a waitress does not necessarily require anything other than people skills and about a week of training, but if you feel that you can do the job better, I suggest you go to McDonald’s and grab your own ketchup packets, because there, tipping isn’t the norm.

     I think that the majority of individuals think that servers, delivery drivers, and bartenders receive an hourly wage, providing them with the guilt free walk out of the restaurant after leaving the 47 cents. However, I do not think that individuals realize that that hourly wage is $2.35. When I look in your direction and glare after you pay your bill, I hope you realize it’s because you wasted my life. I would have rather not been beyond nice to you the entire time, got you whatever you desired, and cleaned up after you and your girlfriend’s saliva infested silverware and half eaten wings that you rudely left all over the table. I am not your mother. I am your waitress. Pay me.

     I do not adopt the occupation because it was my dream job. Who would ever want to smile all day long and run around with a chicken like their head cut off when beer is half off in the restaurant for the fun of it? I do this because I have to, not because I want to. Next time someone hands me a 75 cent tip and tells me to “keep the change,” my response will be to slap it back on the table and declare, “no you keep it. You obviously need it more than I do.” 

Remember the Moment, Don't Live in It

     Wake up at 9am. Shower. Out of toothpaste. Miss the bus. Run to class. Walk in the lecture hall ten minutes late while everyone stares in your direction. Forgot the assignment was due today. Spill your coffee all over your white t-shirt. Oversleep for class number two. Stay up until 4am to write a seven page paper.

Image from google

     God, life can suck. As people age it seems like the bad days continuously outnumber the good days, and even the good days are only good, not great. It’s hard to live in the moment if the moment is awful. The moment makes you dread the next moment because from these moment’s past record, the next one is no better than the last.

     How can a person embrace each minute of each day if all that the seconds bring are stress? Countless amounts of peers tell me to be thankful I am a freshman, that if they could they would rewind their years and do it over again. And I’m positive I’ll say the same come my senior graduation. However, as of now, I do not want to live in the moment, I want to fast forward the moment, or at least all the tribulations that come with the moment.

     Rather than living in the moment, we should merely remember the moment. That way, the next moment will be ten times as sweet compared to the seconds before. Living in the moment will only discourage you to not want to live for the next moment. 

    Sure, now that we look back on it, yesterday was great. But that’s only because we are living in today.