Would you like whipped cream on that?

 "Grande Chocolate Mochasippi? Would you like some whipped cream"? I wish I had a dime for every time I said that line. If I did, I would be pretty wealthy. Working at Community Coffee House has taught me a lot about interacting with people. I've gained more patience, understanding, and have been forced to communicate better as a person. Patience, however, is the most important for working at a coffee shop. There are so many times when a customer would come inside or in the drive-thru and order a drink. It's a coffee shop, that is what happens, people order drinks. My point though is that so many people come through and there is a mis-communication of some sort of what drink they ordered. Sometimes it's our fault, but at other times it's not. Even when it's not our fault that a drink is "not what the customer wanted", we have to make it over the "correct" way. Asking them what we can do to make it better for them becomes quite inconvenient when there is a line wrapped around the building during our morning rush, but we must be patient with them for the simple fact that the customer is always right.
 
  Since graduating college this past May, my mindset has changed dramatically. I'll explain. Working at CC's has been a great job for me to gain some extra cash during my last year of school. I didn't really work during college before that because of clinicals with my major and the great time commitment. My senior year, however, I decided to try and fit a job in there. It was tough at times, but the company was really flexible with me. As graduation became closer though, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I could see myself doing something in my field of study soon after I walked across that stage. Surprisingly, it didn't exactly happen that way.
 
  The entire summer was full of driving around Lafayette delivering resume's, calling every clinic I came across, and attending interviews here and there. Nothing seemed to work out for me as easily as I thought it should. I knew I had to be patient and realize that it takes time for a recent grad to find work in their major, nothing unusual. The final weeks of July approach and again I thought I would have retired my apron by now. Unfortunately, I was still serving up caramel lattes. Every shift that came and went I grew more and more frustrated and impatient. I would think to myself: "I am higher than this. I deserve better. I worked really hard to get a degree, I shouldn't be here right now"! Every customer that came up, I so desperately wanted to make it known to them that I graduated and that I was worth more. I wanted them to know that this wasn't the end of the road for me. My attitude became very funky, until God reminded me of something very important. Humbleness.
 
  How could I forget about this? How could I forget that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble? Duhh Christian! I started to realize that I didn't have to have this attitude. I had to get rid of that nasty mindset and notice that having any job at the moment is a blessing, given the economy now. I was reminded that I needed to make the most of the situation that I am in currently and use it to prepare myself for the next step. I know God has more for me, but I believe this is something that I needed to learn first.
 
  There will be times in our lives when we will not like the situation we are in at all, we will feel like we are "much more" than this, but we must praise Him still and not be bitter about it. I became bitter and impatient because of the pressure of getting my new life jump-started seemed to not move as quickly as I felt it should. I felt discouragement every time I had to tell someone that I was "still looking for a job". Once I let all of that go and remembered that I had to be grateful for the little things so that I can appreciate the bigger things more, that junk inside of me started to leave. I learned to be content with where I was.
 
  Three to four days after this revelation I received a call for a very good job offer.  It's amazing how fast things can turn! It couldn't have come at a better time for me. I will make the most of these last few weeks at CC's like I should."Tall mocha? Sure. Oh yea...would you like whipped cream on that"?

Until next time...

-Christian