Everything I needed to learn about life, I learned from working at Starbucks

I know that many of my posts about working for SBUX have to do with angry customers.

And unfortunately, the moments of my day that stay in my head are typically the ones with the angry people who belittle me and my baristas, or who are so bitter they just leave that toxic mess with you and it ruins your day.

I try to remember the people I see every day who are kind, and polite and who actually seem to really care about how I’m doing as a person.  Let me just mention that one of our regular customers was one of the recovery nurses in the hospital after my D&C this past august, and that she’s so kind and sweet to all of us, every day.  And I am so happy to reciprocate her kindness and make her the best damned latte I can.

But over the past year I’ve noticed how much more bitter my customers have become.  More and more of the people I serve in my cafe are bitter and in a hurry and generally unhappy.  And that brings me down.  Seriously.

It brings me down to know that so many people are unhappy.  Because despite a lot of shit that’s piled up this year, I see a lot of good stuff, too.  And I’m happy.  I’ve figured out what I needed and have found my happy place, my place of contentment, and purpose in my day-to-day.

And I want more people to find that.