my thoughts to you so that they may pervade yours

a reason to be extremely thankful

On Friday, I got hired as a busboy at KO Fusion, one of the nicer restaurants in town. Whilst in a peaceful afternoon nap, I was awakened by a phone call. Glancing at my phone, slightly annoyed, I decided to not pick it up because I didn't know where the number was from. As soon as I closed my eyes, I began thinking:

The area code is 217, which is a number in town... and I did apply to some restaurants the day before... but it was yesterday, there's no way they would call me so suddenly... but I can't take that chance!

I sat up on my bed, shook my head and blinked a couple times to make sure I was alert, and picked up the phone. The person that called me turned out to be one of the owners of KO Fusion, Janet Bubin. The name KO Fusion actually is derived from her maiden name, Ko. Needless to say, I was extremely relieved to have picked up the phone, and by the time the call was finished, I was to meet with Janet after my last class.

After a dreadfully boring endocrine lecture, I quickly dropped off my backpack off at my apartment and promptly took the next 5 Green to KO Fusion. Walking in, a host immediately greeted me and asked if I was alone.

Sorry, but I'd die in shame if I were to eat in this kind of restaurant under-dressed to this extent, and to top it off, ALONE.

After asking to see Janet, I waited a minute before Janet came over to greet me and we walked to an unoccupied portion of the restaurant. After the small talk, the real conversation began.

"Have you worked as a server before?"
"No."
"Have you bussed tables before?"
"No."
"Have you had any previous restaurant experience?"
"No."
"What about any physically demanding jobs?"
"No."

It seemed that all hopes for employment were crushed, confirmed by her subsequent explanation that they didn't hire anyone without prior restaurant experience. Desperate, I explained why I applied to be a server and how I thought I would benefit from such an experience. Miraculously Janet decided to take me on a trial basis, and asked me to come later that night to work. I had put a lot of my music experience on my application, and going off of that, Janet explained how she expected musicians to be disciplined, quick at learning, among other beneficial traits. Mom, Mrs. Hadar, Dr. Dennis, I owe you one.

Extremely excited, I returned home, relaxed for a bit, got dressed, and boarded the 50 Green again for my first night at work. I walked in and headed my way towards the door that Janet had instructed me to enter upon arrival. As I neared the door, I realized it was the door to the kitchen and began hesitating, not knowing whether I was really allowed to enter the kitchen or not. Regardless, I entered and as a stranger someone immediately approached me asking if I needed help.

You know those people whose name seems to fit their physical appearance perfectly- like an overly obese Bertha or an excruciatingly beautiful Priscilla? Well, the woman's name was Zoey, and she was one of those. I'll leave you to mentally bring up an image of how you believe a Zoey should look, and don't bother Google imaging that name, because all you'll come up with are pictures of the younger sister of someone who should never sing again. Anyways, she thought I was a customer that wandered down the wrong way when I quickly explained that I was a new busboy. She welcomed me and gave me an extremely quick tour of the place with an equally furtive explanation of what I should do as a busboy. Then I was off to do my job.

I felt absolutely lost. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry, and I just seemed to be in everyone's way. Another server approached me. I forgot his name. I'm terrible with names. Anyways, he realized I was new, and he gave me some more insight as to what I should be doing. By more insight, I really mean another brief 20 second explanation. Regardless I saw a table being vacated and approached it, a wet rag in hand.

Luckily, there wasn't much to clean. I took the plates and the napkins to the back for cleaning, and returned to begin wiping the table. I immediately realized that the table was too long for me to clean without entering the booth on top of the seat.

Won't kneeling on the seat look unsightly to the other patrons? Should I just sit down and scoot myself in and then clean the table? Won't that look extremely awkward? What do I do?
Okay... I finished cleaning the table, but my rag was too wet. How am I supposed to get rid of the excess moisture? There's crumbs on the seats! How do I get rid of the crumbs?! What am I doing?!?!

Looking back at how I handled my first table, it's amazing to see how even the most obvious solutions eluded your thoughts when you're under pressure, such as keeping a dry rag on me. After cleaning my first table, I quickly asked Zoey where Janet's office was. I was thrown in so suddenly into the working environment that I forgot to see Janet. She would tell me what to do!

I entered her office and greeted her.

"Oh, you came Sean! Okay, go out and learn what you have to do!"

Are you serious? That's all? No insight as to how to be the best busboy possible? Okay, okay... Just smile, leave the office, and you better learn quick.

I found myself amidst the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. Long story short, I became much more competent as a busboy by the time the night was over. However, there's still a long ways for me to go. A couple things I learned:

1: It's tiring to be a busboy.
I felt so tired after my shift was over. It was an extremely busy night, and I was moving constantly nonstop.

2: It's a dirty job.
Let's just say I'm glad I have three pairs of dress pants and that I will never wear the pair I wore that night to church ever again.

3. It sucks looking at the food.
The food looks great, and I know for myself that the food tastes great. I want to eat some of that food!

4: I'm not moving up to a server any time soon.
I talked to one of the other busboys (I forgot his name too, sigh,) and it turns out he's been working there since August. I asked him if he was wanting to move up to become a server eventually, and he said he entered KO Fusion with that goal in mind. It's been almost a year for him.

On that last note, I wonder exactly what it takes to be deemed ready to become a server. Of course seniority matters, so I think that other busboy I talked to will become a server before me, but that possibly can't be too large a factor. I came thinking that I'll be the most charming, the hardest working, and that I would smile the most. Bad news: everyone seems to possess some charm in their personalities, they all work hard, and they all smile. This means that I went in with a "bare minimum" mentality. That doesn't make me happy at all.

I began thinking of what it would take to distinguish myself as a superior busboy. Trouble is that I can't come up with too many things other than be more efficient, more charming, more harder-working, more attentive, more careful... more...... everything. Surely that cannot be the correct answer. However, I figure I still have time to figure out the answer for myself, but when I do, Janet will have on her hands the best busboy she's ever had.

About Sean Park

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