I drove to Birmingham today to take my parents to the airport. They better be happy that they’re family because 4:30 am (not a typo) is just too early to function. There’s a reason that God doesn’t let the sun rise for another couple of hours and that’s because I should still be sleeping. But alas, they’re my parents and I’d do – pretty much – anything for them. And of course, since I was driving to Birmingham anyway, I was lucky enough to be able to make another couple of deliveries while I was up there. The only problem was that it was 6 am (still not a typo), and every other normal person was still snuggled soundly in their Egyptian cotton sheets and therapeutic pillows. In the meantime, I headed to Waffle House.
No matter what state you live in, stepping into a Waffle House is like stepping into a different country – yes, even in the south you yankees. But, I tend to like the atmosphere of one giant conversation where everybody else already knew each other. It was obvious I was a newcomer. But since there were enough waiters to where everyone could have their own, I felt very well taken care of, despite the fact most of the staff were really open with how the felt about each other, the food took me one step closer to a heart attack, and the cook was talking to someone – still to be determined who – quite loudly. Aside from that, it was a pleasant meal.
Vince was my waiter and since I was his only customer, he was constantly making eye contact with me to make sure everything was alright. I’m pretty easy going, but on the third time he came to “warm up my coffee” by giving me that extra quarter inch, I just felt like he wanted to talk. I asked him the typical questions about where he was from and how long he had worked there and if he had a family, and it was more than enough to get him started. He gave me his biography and it was just the thing to help me stay awake for that extra 30 minutes I needed to kill before everything else opened up. After several minutes, he apologized to me for hogging the conversation and wanted to ask me some questions. I feel like I’ve had this conversation before…
So he asked me pretty much the same questions and I began to tell him the stories that went along with each of my answers. I guess saying unemployed or in between jobs just isn’t the same without giving an explanation. So, instead of giving straight answers, I decided to just tell a couple of stories. Vince seemed to hang on my every word and told me he wished he could do some of those things. I asked him why he couldn’t, and he gave me an answer I have heard more times than I want to think about in the past year. Finances were an issue. He needed to work. He wanted to go back to school. But every excuse led to another excuse that explained why the other one existed. I told him that I have been living back in my hometown, kind of working, for the past six weeks and I’ve had just as many stories to tell as I did when I was overseas (I have this for documentation). I could feel another excuse coming, so I just had to ask him if he realized that everything he was saying was an excuse.
This was the longest he had gone without an answer. Out of nowhere he told me he wanted to go back to school. He wants to get a college degree and be someone’s boss. It doesn’t really matter who, he just wants the chance to be in charge of something. So I asked him what his plan was. He looked at me a little confused, so I asked him if he expected his shift manager to promote him anytime soon. I could tell by his face what his answer was. It’s not just about having these big dreams and speaking them into existence. We have to figure out what the next step is AND THEN take it. I never want to be seen as the dream guy who has no answer on the practical end. Most of the times, to live our dreams, the next step is very clear. We just look at the dream so intently that we never believe we can get there so we never take that first step.
Vince needs to go to school first in order to graduate from school. So before he becomes someone’s boss, he needs to figure out how he can get into school and then do that. If it’s working at Waffle House a little longer to save for tuition, then he needs to do that and not waste his money on anything less than his dream. Our dreams are worth the sacrifices we make to achieve them. It’s just a matter of making them.
