How My First Job Empowered Me

I was a weak young man who had been hospitalized and sick on and off for a couple years, when I found the courage and the strength to improve my status.

Approximately four years ago, I began my first job. I was a hard worker and enjoyed what I did. I had just gotten out of the hospital a couple months prior and had no business being an employee, at the time. To put this into context, I was seventeen, 6"0 tall and 98 lbs. I could barely lift a gallon of milk. I was hired on as host. The host’s job is to buss tables, seat guests, clean restrooms, roll silverware, support the servers and maintain an organized workstation. To put it mildly, I was a weakling. My first day of work, I was asked to carry a tray of dishes about 200 feet from a table to the kitchen; I could not lift the tray. Instead, I took the dishes off the tray in as large of a stack as I could at the time and carry them to the kitchen. I would repeat this process until the tray was cleared. My first training day went by quite well. I don’t know what possessed my managers, but they decided to place me as an opener for Mother’s Day.

For those of you who don’t know, Mother’s Day is the busiest day of the year for restaurants, with the morning rush being the busiest part of the day. I was in over my head, but I did not want to let the management staff down. I nearly sprinted from table to table bussing as fast as I could. I struggled greatly that day, and when I got home I pretty much slept the remainder of the day away. My muscles were sore and I ached from head to toe. I…