As you may have known from my previous post I am now an employee of Starbucks working as a Barista. Really it is the perfect job for me. I am interacting with people, I get to drink all the coffee I want and they are flexible to work around my school schedule. There is one part of the job, however, that may not be so perfect. You see, part of working around my school schedule means that there are certain days that I can only open. I know opening doesn’t seem so bad, but to to work an opening shift that means your day begins at 4:30 a.m.!
I have never really been much of a morning person. You can ask my mother if you don’t believe me. In high school she constantly had to check in on me to see if I was getting up so I wouldn’t be late to school. Despite her best efforts I did end up being late to my first hour class most of the time. During my senior year my parents got a letter home about every week that said your son or daughter has been late x amount of times this week, etc. etc. I love to sleep and I love my bed. I can easily sleep until noon on a weekend and not feel guilty, even though some people may claim that is a waste of a day. That is always how I have operated– stay up late, sleep all day. That is until about a month ago.
When I saw that I was scheduled for an opening shift for the first time and realized that meant going to work at 4:30am before the sun even came up, I have to admit I was a little concerned. As a Starbucks employee there are certain star skills you are suppose to represent and greeting customers with a smile is defenetlyone of them. I was concerned I would not be able to do this because in the mornings I generally resemble this:
That isn’t the way Starbucks customers want to be greeted so I knew I would have to smile even if it was forced. The night before I worked my fist opening shift I barely slept because I was so afraid I would not wake up on time. I woke up at 1:00am, and thought good I have 3 more hours to sleep and then 2:00am and then 3:15am, etc. I have to admit that after I finished my shift that day I was exhausted. I didn’t know how I was going to make it…
But since then I have come to appreciate my early mornings for a number of reasons. First of all there is a certain peace that is unexplainable at that time in the morning. There is really nobody else around and the drive to work is quick and traffic free. The drive thru in the store I work at faces the west so every morning I watch the sunrise over the mountains as I give people their coffee. It is beautiful and amazing and I thank God everyday for his incredible creation! Finally, I love my early mornings because I am getting to know the regular customers. It is such an honor to be able to begin their morning with them. Some just grunt at you because lets face it they haven’t had their morning coffee yet, so they really are barely awake and there are those that are a little too peppy for the morning if you know what I mean, but they always bring a smile to my face. It is fun to get to know them, even if it only is for 3-4 minutes at a time as I hand them their Triple, Venti, non-fat, 2 pump mocha, 2 pump hazelnut Latte or the for the more simple orders their Grande Brewed coffee. I find myself, amazingly, not struggling so much to get up anymore and I actually now prefer the opening shift over any other shift. In fact now I look more like this in the mornings:
Okay, so maybe it isn’t that extreme, I mean come on it is 4:30 in the morning! But it is a lot easier to smile now, especially when I know I can go home and take a nap after I get off work. : )
