Life is always keeping me on my toes. The day after I found out I would be an RA for the summer, I was offered a job with my old boss, working in the Media Center on campus. The grass really is greener on the other side, seeing as I wasn't fond of this job during school and now I'd give anything to have it back. She offered me forty hours a week, 8am-4pm. I quit at McDonald's the same day. I liked my job, along with all the adventures, experiences and crazy stories it brought. But this makes more sense to stay and work on campus. Less gas money, and a chance to take the skills and lessons I learned working fast food and apply them to my job as a Media Center Associate.

I really did learn valuable life lessons in my short 5 week stint at Mickey D's.

-A respectful job comes in many different forms
-If you work hard, people love you and are sad to see you go
-There are people in worse situations than you
-All the early mornings don't seem to matter at 2pm every other Monday when the paychecks are distributed
-You can survive with very little sleep

Another thing that got me thinking was that everybody I come in contact with has a story--customers, coworkers, bosses. I found myself wanting to find out what their life stories were, especially those of the regular customers. I hardly knew them and they hardly knew me, but the little things I learned about them over 5 weeks of getting them a small senior coffee every morning, or a large sweet tea at lunch made the job worth it.

My last day, this past Saturday, a gentleman that comes in every morning for coffee told me I was doing a great job and asked if I lived there because he sees me everyday. I told him it was my last day, but that I enjoyed it. A few minutes later, as I was cleaning tables, he wished me luck in my future endeavors. These little words of kindness kept me going. Encouragement from complete strangers was something I looked forward to every day.

I will miss my regulars. I'll miss having coffee ready for them before they even walk through the door. I'll miss Mr. Elijah and him telling me I'm doing great after he had me memorize his order--2 sausage biscuits, well done, and a senior coffee with 1 cream and 2 sugars put in.

I'll miss the staff I worked with. Many of them had hard lives and worked there, not for extra summer money, but to support their families. I'll miss Ms. Rhonda and racing her. She knew I loved competition.

But, alas, life changes. This was something I told myself I'd never do. But I did, and I am glad.