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Today I'm going to talk about work, not my current job, but my job a few years ago, specifically since I turned 18. As soon as I turned 18, I looked for a job right away, super fast. I looked for a job really quickly. Why? Because I wanted to save a lot of money to buy this van. So, at 18, I had a job and I was going to university. And this job was as a waitress, but not just any waitress, a very special waitress. But before being a waitress, I worked two other things. I worked as a nanny, a babysitter, and I also worked as a private English tutor, meaning I taught English to children after school. These were my first jobs, but they weren't official jobs. My first official job was when
I started working as a waitress during university, but I wasn't a full-time waitress in a restaurant. I worked as a waitress for a freelance waitressing company. In other words, if a restaurant was short-staffed and had a lot of customers, they'd call my company-not my company, but the company I worked for-and ask for more waiters for that night. That's what I did, and it was the perfect job because it meant I could work whenever it suited me, whenever I wanted. So, I'd get a message saying, "Laura, they need waiters tonight at Marieta restaurant." Marieta was one of the restaurants where I worked. "
We need waiters for Marieta. Are you available?" And I'd say yes or no, depending on whether I was available or not. I usually said yes because I wanted to earn a lot of money. They didn't pay me badly, but they didn't pay me well either. They paid me €7 an hour. What do you think? Is €7 an hour a lot, a little, or normal? It was enough for me. I wanted to earn money, and this was the most flexible job that allowed me to earn money and work more or fewer hours depending on the week. But before going to restaurants, I had to work as a waitress somewhere else. And this other place was events. There are many
business events where they need food and they need people with trays to distribute the food and drinks. And that was my first job, a waitress at events with this same company. My first event was arriving, being given a tray of food, and walking around the event. Distributing snacks, small bites of food. I have to say that after the first night, my arms were practically falling off. They were so tired. My arms were so tired from carrying the tray, from holding the tray and walking around with it all night. But luckily, I got to carry the food tray, which is always better than carrying the
drinks tray, because the drinks tray is always heavier and more dangerous, because the drinks are in glasses, and if you're not balanced, all the glasses with the drinks will fall to the floor. And that's a disaster. The truth is, working at events was quite fun, all things considered. It was fun talking to the other waiters, and above all, it was fun collecting the trash from the tables because once your tray was empty, all the snacks were gone, and your job was to go back to the kitchen for another tray, but on the way, you had to collect the trash.
And this was the moment when the tray weighed the least. The whole night revolved around the weight of the tray. This was the worst Partly, especially when they were special trays, because they had a very pretty design and were very heavy. My favorite trays were the bamboo ones because they were very light, they weighed very little. And after working several events as a waitress, the company called me again and said, "Laura, we need waiters for a wedding. Do you think you can go?" And I said, "Of course." And for the first time, I started working as a waitress at weddings. Being a waitress at weddings is a little
different from being a waitress at events because it's a different protocol. We always went to the same place, it was a rather posh castle, but yes, I worked as a waitress in a castle that hosted weddings. And at the castle, they gave us a uniform that was very itchy, very itchy, and it was gray with an apron, like a maid's. And we did the same thing as at events. For the first part, we distributed food on trays, and for the second part, we served the food at the tables. The first course, the second course, dessert, and drinks. We were assigned one or more tables
and served the food. During all this time, I had to learn many skills, like carrying several plates in one hand or serving with a fork and spoon. For example, I've lost practice. Let's see. Spoon and fork. I used to hold them like this, and they're like tongs for taking food from the plate and serving it. You take the food, the steak, and serve it. And another skill is holding three plates in one hand. I'm sure you can hold more, but I don't know how. I only know how to hold three plates. And I learned a lot, especially for weddings. I loved weddings because they were longer than events, they lasted more hours, and so I earned more money.
And it was then, after I had already done events and weddings, that the company called me again and said, "Laura, they need waiters at a restaurant, Marieta Restaurant." Can you go? And of course, you told me an hour in advance, but I'm going. And that was the first time I ever worked as a waitress in a restaurant. It must have been because another waiter called in and they needed a last-minute waiter, literally, to go in his place. And that's how I ended up at my first restaurant. When I arrived, I was completely lost. I arrived
and they immediately said to me, "You're going to work in zone one, do you know how this works?" And I said, "Of course I do, of course I know." I had no idea. The restaurant was divided into four zones , and zone one had several numbered tables. The table numbers were 101, 102, 103, 104, and so on. In zone two, the tables were 201, 202, 203, and so on. Well, they told me, "Well, you have to memorize the table numbers right then and there." And I said, "What? What do you mean I have to memorize them like that?" Exactly. It's very easy. Tables 101, 102, and me.
Damn. Why? Because when the food arrived, they'd say, "This dish goes to table 101." And if I hadn't learned the table numbers, I could make a mistake. It was a very interesting, but fun night, and I remember ending the night cleaning the tablecloths with a mop. I must have done it well enough because they called me back, and that's how I ended up as a waitress for events, weddings, and restaurants. But why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this to talk about the worst moment I've ever had working as a waitress. I'm still a little traumatized because I made a fatal, fatal, fatal, fatal mistake. I made a mistake that
I still feel guilty about. And this happened at a wedding. The castle had its local waiters, but sometimes they weren't enough, and they'd call us to come in as extra waiters. Who served the bride and groom? The couple who had just gotten married? The local waiters. Okay, so we, the extra waiters, served the guests who were furthest from the bride and groom, the less important ones. Well, this happened at a wedding. It was the second part of the event, not the part where you hand out appetizers with a tray. It was the part where you serve food
from one plate to another with a spoon and fork. Let me put the microphone here because I'm going to give you a visual representation of my screw-up. So, I was walking around the table, and I remember it was the second course. I was holding my spoon and fork tightly, with my plate that had the meat I had to take from another plate and serve onto their individual plates. It wasn't a plate like this; it was more like a fairly large, oval-shaped tray, and it was quite heavy. Well, I was serving food to a really nice girl. She was wearing a gorgeous blue dress.
And I was serving her food. I looked over here and started doing this. Look, all the sauce from the plate spilled all over the girl's dress. I soaked the girl's blue dress, and all the meat sauce got on the poor girl's dress. I put my hands to my head and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Oh my God, what do I do?" I felt terrible, and the really nice girl said to me, "Don't worry, it's okay." And I said, "Let me see if they have anything for the dress." And I ran out. I finished serving the meat and ran through the castle looking for something, something for the dress, something to get the stains out. I went to reception and sure enough, they had something there, so I took it to
the girl. But the trauma I still have to this day, years later, is that I got that poor girl's dress stained with gravy. It was a thick sauce, wasn't it? It was what they call gravy in English, a kind of thick sauce. And I got that on the poor girl's dress. Luckily, she was very nice, very pleasant, and took it very calmly. She calmed me down and herself. She said, "It's okay." At least that's how I remember it. And well, that was the story I wanted to tell you. What about you? What jobs have you had? I've only had these three: babysitter, English teacher, and waitress. And well, now I have this.
What jobs have you had? Write your ideas in the comments and see if you can inspire me to change course and maybe become a software designer or an ambulance driver. I'd like to have more jobs. Three jobs aren't enough. I haven't tried many things in my life.
