{"id":3943,"date":"2023-12-21T11:17:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T15:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?p=3943"},"modified":"2023-12-21T11:23:16","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T15:23:16","slug":"after-serving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/2023\/12\/21\/after-serving\/","title":{"rendered":"After Serving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Become a food server. <\/em>On nearly every list of recommendations for side hustle jobs, the suggestion comes with the assumption that someone will have a regular job full time job as well as the food server job for supplemental income. The National Restaurant Association lists restaurant and food service jobs as representing 9% of employment in Maryland in 2022, at 240,300 jobs. I talked to Maddie Thornton who holds two jobs, one as a tattoo apprentice at Eclipse Studio in Edgewood, Maryland, and one as a food server at Petit Louis Bistro. I asked what she struggles with. \u201cI sometimes lack confidence in myself\/my ability and begin cycling thoughts of self-doubt. I\u2019ve always been one to choose \u2018the safe path\u2019 so you can imagine it\u2019s been interesting for me, adapting to a more unconventional career path,\u201d she answered.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

One conventional, one unconventional, both with their own challenges. \u201cThis part of my life is a reminder of how hard we have to work in order to achieve our goals. I feel burnt out from time to time and must step back to recognize my life isn\u2019t always going to be this chaotic. I always tell myself \u2018It\u2019s only up from here\u2019 and it\u2019s true. What\u2019s coming is far better than what has happened,\u201d Maddie says.<\/p>\n

For many, the food serving job is just a means to pay the bills while their passion career plan builds. The amount of hours working both jobs is difficult, with full time serving already taking up 40 hours a week. I asked Maddie what her reasons are to keep both jobs. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a planner, especially when it comes to my finances. I knew going into my apprenticeship, I wouldn\u2019t be making any money while I learned. Keeping my serving job, in my mind, seemed to be the smart option to ensure income.\u201d\"A<\/p>\n

There\u2019s lessons that are applicable to both despite the two industries differences. \u201cLearning how to handle certain people. In all jobs, you can run into bad eggs, so it\u2019s nice being able to correlate certain situations from one job to help handle a similar situation at my other job.\u201d<\/p>\n

I work with Maddie at Petit Louis Bistro, as a food server as well. One day, we both had tables on the outside patio and I saw her server book had a sheet of paper inside, with what looked like affirmations written down. One line read \u201cI will get out of serving.\u201d Another line read \u201cI will get into tattooing.\u201d I asked her later why she had them. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to reflect: on where you\u2019ve been, where you\u2019re at, and where you\u2019re heading. I\u2019m a huge believer of remaining grounded, present, and thankful for all that I have.\u201d\"Tattoo<\/p>\n

If she could say something to her past self she\u2019d say, \u201cSlow down, enjoy life more.\u201d To her future self, \u201cThank you for getting it together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Become a food server. On nearly every list of recommendations for side hustle jobs, the suggestion comes with the assumption that someone will have a regular job full time job Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6622,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6622"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3943"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4417,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943\/revisions\/4417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}