“So… what are you going to do?” my mom said as she questioned me. Or rather grilled me. I couldn’t decide. She wasn’t actually giving me time to answer her demanding question that heavily affects my life. Not that she would think of that.

“I don’t know… maybe,” I said. “What if I break something or spill something on someone?”. I keep on venting about all the negatives and take a break to stare out the window. If my sister was going to work, I guess I could too. Do you ever get the feeling like your problems seem like a big deal and no one understands? People think they have bigger problems than my problems, but I feel like I won’t live to see my problems solved.

What was at stake you ask? My mom wanted me to get a job at this Polish restaurant, Old Warsaw, as a busboy or rather as a busgirl. Old Warsaw is kind of upscale, especially around the holidays and is always filled to the brim with people. I think that's the way it is because of the all you can eat buffet. I finally gave in and agreed to go to work there with my sister. She is two years older than me, and I think she is more cut out for the job than I am. But I could definitely use some money. My mom convinced me that, “This will be a great learning experience talking to strangers and getting accustomed communicating with people in general”.

The next day, my sister and I went together for our first day of work on a Saturday. My dad drove us there. It was cold. I remember there was snow on the ground. I remember I stared out the window and tried not to think of what laid ahead. I remember pulling up on the parking lot; my dad letting us leave the car and telling us to get to work.

“How was your first day?”.
“Was it hard?”.
“How much money did you make?”.
“Was it really busy?”.
My family asked all this interchangeably as my sister and I entered the house. I took a moment to think about each question before answering.
“It was okay,” I said.
“That’s it?” my mom exclaimed. “That’s all you have to say? Tell me everything”.
I didn’t know what to say.
“It wasn’t that bad,” I said. “Was that better?”

My mom sighed and started firing questions to my sister which she gladly answered and provided much more information than needed. She went into so much detail I didn’t know how because the entire day was like a blur before my eyes. It was kind of way too fast paced for me. You know, for like a fifteen year old. I guess I couldn’t have done better even if I wanted to.

Something came back to me, and I was about to start to tell my mom about how this plate I put fell and shattered in front of the manager when my sister cut me off and started talking about how I am not cut for this job and told my mom the story.

I had just finished making a round throughout the restaurant picking up plates when I entered the hallway behind the buffet for employees to put the plates I had into an overloaded bin with dirty dishes on a cart. A fellow busboy, Wojtek, noticed how it was overflowing and starting pushing the cart to the dishwasher. The guys always do the heavy lifting like carrying clean plates or moving tables. Wojtek was my mentor who taught me what I do all day because the only way to learn was on the job. Anyway, when he pushed the cart, I noticed a plate was about to fall. I picked it up and tried to put it in a position so it wouldn’t fall and shatter. In the exact moment I started to do  that, my sister and the manager enter. The manager starts talking about something; I don’t really remember because I was too busy fixing that plate.

Wojtek says, “Okay,” to whatever the manager said. It was in that exact moment when I set that plate down, and Wojtek started to move with the cart that I felt everything was starting to go in slow motion. You know, like the kind in movies. The plate started to shift down and slip.

I just kept thinking, “Oh my gosh, that is totally gonna fall” and “Noooo”. All four of us kind of stood there, frozen, as the plate ascended down and finally fell and shattered into what I thought was a million pieces. I felt the blood drain from my body; it was only my first day, and I felt like this was the end of the world.

The manager after watching this, looked at me and then said to Wojtek, “You go take the cart to the dishwasher already, and Judyta (my sister) clean this up. The broom and the dustpan are over there”.

Then she turned to me, and I was like here it comes. I kept thinking maybe she  would fire me but then again, it was only my first day so she had to go easy on me. The manager is strict, and she doesn’t like it when employees stand around and do nothing. When she is around, everyone runs around and pretends to be hard at work.

“Just keep walking around getting plates and setting tables. I don’t want you to be taking the carts anywhere when they are full”.

“Okay,” I said.
I was relieved.

“Why would you do that? Couldn’t you just leave it alone?” my mom said as she commented on the incident.
“I thought I was going to save it the first time. It’s not my problem that the cart was full and no one was taking it to the dishwasher earlier,” I said.

I took a deep breath. I tried to shake it off. I’ll know better next time. Now, each time I go to work, my mantra is “Every man for himself” and to never interfere in problems not concerning me.