I’m a waitress,

And I love my job—

It gives me satisfaction.

               I love knowing that I am helping someone relax after a long, hard day.

               I love being helpful and making people smile.

               I love my coworkers, and all of the new friends I’ve made.

  I love good nights; not only nights when I make good money, but nights when I feel like I did everything I could do, and fulfilled my responsibility to the best of my ability.

But you know,

Sometimes it’s tough.

              Some days I feel like I’m the worst server on the face of the planet.

Sometimes people just had shitty days, and it’s not your fault, but that won’t keep them from taking it out on you.

Sometimes you can’t please everyone, and they would rather see you cry than smile.

Sometimes your coworkers get mad at you, and people aren’t in the mood to make friends.

Sometimes I have awful nights; I work ten to twelve hour days where I make just enough money to put gas in my car, and I feel like I failed and could have done so much better.

Sometimes you have good days, and sometimes you have bad days. That’s one of the most valuable lessons I have learned from my job.

That’s just how it is.

Sometimes you’re on top of the world, without a care, and others you feel like you’re in a deep dark hole of depression, and realize how terrible the world can be.

You just have to find a balance.

You have to fight back your demons, and your guilt, and all of the bad things that seem to pop up at once and just keep fighting for what’s important to you.          

You have to fight for the people you love, and against the guilt, and against all of the forces in the world that tell you “you can’t.”

You have to realize that it will get better. This is not the end.  Bad days at work, breakups, bills, all of the temporary sadness this world will throw at you is just that—temporary. It could always be worse.

You have to keep going. You will have better days, you will make new friends, and find new loves, and it will all be ok.  It will all work out in the end.  I promise. It gets better.

There is balance in our world.  It just takes time and patience to achieve it.

If I can find such abundant happiness in simply bringing people chips and salsa all day, you can do anything.

So there’s your motivational speech, and your burrito.  Go find your balance.