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Everyday I see young people giving up their opportunities to move forward in life.     These kids seem to think that there's an easy path that doesn't involve going to school. 

What they don't realize is that going to school is the easy path....... and if you don't go to school you're actually creating a much more difficult road to walk down. 

 I work at a restaurant and part of my job is to train new servers, hosts, and bartenders.   People tend to come in all shapes and sizes, however, there are mostly two types of people that I come across.

1.  Young kids who are just starting out in life.
2.  Older people who once had their life worked out but something went wrong and now they just need a job.

 I myself fall into the second category.  I was a systems analyst that got hired during the MCSE craze,  right around the year 2000.   

When everyone got laid off from that job,  I found myself in a difficult world without a college degree.  All I had was an expired piece of paper that wasn't worth much.

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I've spent the last 11 years working at this restaurant. I've gone back to school and gotten a degree in Spanish with the hopes of teaching ESL.  I spend my time studying languages, writing fiction stories,  and looking for any and every possible way to improve my life.

As someone who started out without a college degree I speak to the kids I train everyday from the perspective of someone who was once in their shoes.  

The young men and women I train all have ideas and hopes and dreams.   I'd say about 20% of the time these dreams involve going to college...... which is great. 

Unfortunately about 80% of the time these dreams involve having an idealized easy life working at a restaurant and making just enough money to get by without ever having to be in a classroom.

Most of these kids come to me at about the age of 20 or under.   They don't understand how much damage you do to your body being on your feet everyday.    

Lifting trays, pulling chairs, pushing tables........ restaurant workers walk around with hurt knees and feet, terribly painful shoulders,  backs, and necks,   and almost every other physical affliction you can think of.   

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More than half of us have to take prescription pain medication in order to continue to do their job. Several people I know have had knee surgery.  

I ask these kids everyday when I train them:   

"Why have you chosen to work here?"

When they tell me that it's a temporary thing until they get into college, I smile and feel good inside.

However, if they tell me it's because this is what their father did, or because they think it'll be an easy job, or because they're ready to start moving forward with life and get married to their sweetheart now......then  I am filled with despair for them.

You usually can't talk someone out of something that they've already decided to do.  


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 I never stop trying though. I don't want these kids to feel the same pain that I do everyday.   I don't want these kids to look back at life and say :

"I wish I had gotten my education back when I was young and it was easy.  Now that I'm older it feels so difficult."

 These are the things that I say to myself. 

Everyone has the chance to go to school and make a life that they can be happy about.

Don't just take the life you're given. 

Make the life that you deserve.

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