Jan. 12/14 – I started working in a restaurant as a bus girl when I was 12 years old. I remember I used to make between $30 and $50 a night on tips alone. This was a lot of money back in the early 80s because my salary was only $2.5 per hour. The restaurant I worked at was super busy. Lines start from 4:30pm all the way till closing at 10pm. In this job, I learned how to be efficient and how to manage my time among the different tasks I had. Two years later, I started working for my mom’s restaurant and stayed in the restaurant industry for 16 years total.
True, I didn’t have the social life that the rest of my friends had since I was working every single weekend at the restaurant. And since holidays was when the restaurant was the busiest, everyone had to work. I have no regrets at all. We all grew and grew up in that restaurant. It gave us a lot of memories that we cherish up till now. On top, my aunties, uncles and cousins all worked there part time too so we really got to bond with one another.