Some people might think that working at a cafe is a typical student job that you take just to make rent every week, but I can honestly say that, for me, that isn’t the case. I know it may not be glamorous, that the pay really isn’t that great, and that a lot of the time I would give my left arm to be in bend asleep, but I decided that, far out, if I’m going to work, I’m going to make the most of it. Let no opportunity go to waste, that kind of thing.
Taking that to heart, I’ve made a real effort to get to know our regulars, although to be honest, ‘effort’ really isn’t the right word. I mean, at first it was a very socially awkward conversation starter here and a terrible pun there, but over time the conversation just started to flow and I got to know a couple of them really well.
Probably my favourite regular has a job that I’d never even heard of until we started our morning chats. She works as a buyers advocate in Melbourne, helping people make their dreams of owning a perfect house come true. It’s weird, the strange things that people do with their lives. Things that seem like they ‘just happen’ always have a team of dedicated people slugging away behind the scenes. For me, buyers advocacy in Melbourne was one of those type of jobs, but thinking about it, it makes sense to have a professional help you through the whole process. At the very least, it would have to make it easier than doing it all on your own.
Obviously for me, anything like that is off in the way distant future. At the moment I can barely afford to do what I’m doing. But still. It’s interesting, and our 9am chats are always a highlight of my day.