Obstacles build character and endurance isn’t for the weak.

Yes the last presentation I made at church made me feel foolish, man I felt stupid, so I began to fight, fight my doubting thoughts, fight my will that wanted to give up, fight the lies that had crept up in me, and fight for the life the Lord had planed out ahead of me. I needed a job and the only one I had my heart set on was at Starbucks so I went to a job fair at the Tulare Fair grounds in April 2006, I marched right up to the Starbucks recruit table and expected them to hand over a manager position at the nearest available location… after all I DID have a B.A. didn’t that mean anything?…apparently not , but I did become a barrista before I left. I thought, if I’m going to learn how to make coffee and how to become a manager, Starbucks of all places has all the answers. So for the next three months I learned, and worked, and wore that silly black hat and green apron…I hate conformity but I came to really appreciate that black hat when I rolled out of bed for my 4:30am shift…yep, 4:30 AM. Anyway all the while I worked at Starbucks we had these “mandatory” breaks, two 10 minute breaks and one 30 minute break. When I first started working there I found myself hiding in the back storage room during these “breaks”. I hated breaks cause I just sat there for 10 whole minutes, staring at a wall feeling more like I was in a “time out” than on a break from working. Anyway, I decided enough was enough, no more staring at the walls waiting for my break alarm to go off, if I was going to manage a coffee house differently than Starbucks I needed act accordingly. No, not wear a purple apron and a sun hat, but interact. You see I wanted to start a coffee place that was set up for the employees to not just work but also form friendships, create community, and find out different peoples needs that needed to be met and see if we could help them or connect them with someone who could, but I was too busy moping about how I didn’t have any friends, I was living with my parents, and working for min. wage at Starbucks wearing that silly black hat, that I missed out on practicing what I was dreaming to do. I needed to put myself out there, even if it was uncomfortable, even if no one else I worked with was doing it, and I need to see if connections with the “dinning in” costumers could be made in ten minutes increments. After putting myself out there and becoming available for conversation, I found out everyone has a story. Whether it is interesting or not doesn’t even matter to them, they just want to be heard, and I began to love to listen, and of course, share a little myself…after all I like to be heard too!