Bonnie Chau bchau@media.ucla.edu
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By Bonnie Chau
Sometimes I wonder if it’s all downhill from here, if
working at Northern Lights will be the high-point of my life. Well,
not really. But I wonder if I’ll ever have another job as
all-around cool, if I’ll ever have a boss or managers as
cool. Will I ever work with so many cool people? (And could I use
the word “cool” more? Do you really want to see me
try?) The work atmosphere is just so friendly; there are no
cliques, no rivalries (except, perhaps, concerning the barista
system. Anti-barista ’til I die!).
Sometimes I think it’s a curse, and I’ll never be
able to leave. I started working my first year with the clear
intention of leaving after my second year. Now it’s the end
of my second year. And I’m not leaving, I’m working
over the summer. And as adamant as I am about not returning in the
fall, who knows? Many other people have stayed much longer than
they had planned.
What is it about Northern Lights? What is it about inhabiting a
student-run world and being equally adept at making caramel lattes
and two-scoop sundaes?
Perhaps it’s the convenience of an on-campus job that is
so addictive. Lazy college students as we are, this is as close as
it gets to the ideal of eating-sleeping-working-playing-studying
all within a few hundred yards. Got a three-hour gap between
classes? Throw on an apron! Where else would you have the
opportunity to serve coffee, ice cream and sushi to the teaching
assistant who’s grading your next assignment? The chance to
make a change in the life of that person sitting next to you in
discussion? How else would you gain the privilege of such personal
access to your professor’s gastrointestinal tract?
The environment of an on-campus job is unlike any other. Sure,
we might not be getting paid as much, but we’re also light
years away from being stuck in a cubicle doing data entry. If
it’s a luxury you can afford, by all means give an on-campus
job a try.
And once you do, you’ll realize that there’s no
going back. There is nothing like this kind of coworker drama.
These are coworkers who go to school with you, might be in your
class, might be in your dorm or apartment complex. You eat the same
food, read the same books, complain about the same classes. You
hang out together. There have been weekly bowling nights. There are
wild, raging, drunken parties that wreak havoc on coworker lives
and relationships.
If Northern Lights is one big, happy family, let’s not
neglect the incestuous aspect of it. Working behind the counter of
a coffeehouse is apparently a breeding ground for sexually-charged
behavior. We’re not without our share of gossip, illicit
affairs, potential and past hook-ups, dirty secrets,
beneath-the-apron groping (Ha! Just kidding!).
Perhaps most important are all the invaluable things you can see
and learn from customers and coworkers. There are some people who
have such bad attitudes you wonder how it is they’ve managed
to stay alive for this long without getting a good
ol’-fashioned beating. “Excuuuuse me, I wanted a
strawberry milkshake, not strawberry milk!” Or people who are
short very large amounts of money and then either yell at us for
not having a take-a-penny jar or just stare accusingly at us for
not accepting credit cards or foreign coins (those crazy
Canadians!).
And yet despite all the attitude, we’re still always
polite and sincere when we smile and wish you a good day because we
know you might just be having a bad day because we’re better
than a petty frown or a snide comment. Besides, having such a swell
network of coworkers is what I think keeps us here long after
we’d planned to stay. As much as you learn from customers, it
is just as important learning from each other. We all have to deal
with midterms and finals and papers and projects; we all have days
when we are sick or hung-over or really tired, so we all look out
for each other. As I say, if we were there for the money, we
wouldn’t be there. We’re there because we want to be
there. Well, that and because we’re cursed … We’re
stuck, but we love it. So give it a try, give it a little love. And
we’ll see what you’re still loving a couple of years
from now.