I’ve never been more embarrassed than the night my former classmates dropped by the Chinese food restaurant where I work.
I even purposely left the conversation I had been added to for such a cause. I later informed them that I had plans for the day of the meeting, no time for me. In fact, I just didn’t want to go there, because I had nothing to brag about. I failed two years in a row to get into acting, and I didn’t want to apply elsewhere. In my third year, my father got fed up with it and sent me to work.
I was a supervisor in a store, a petrol station, a convenience store, but waitressing in a restaurant turned out to be the best: they leave decent tips, and a lot of foreigners come in.
What I did not take into account is that former classmates can also come there. And if I had stayed in the conversation, I would have known that they would go there and could have asked for that day.
I was very embarrassed when I went to serve the table and ten pairs of surprised eyes stared at me.
– Rebecca? – Adam, my former roommate, muttered.
I kept expecting to be mocked, but the guys called me to the table. They asked me if I could excuse myself right now, because now they understood why I couldn’t come. But these meetings are once every ten years, you can spend some time with your classmates. So I had to ask them to go and sit with them.
It was very uncomfortable for me, because I didn’t have any money on the table and I didn’t know at what point I would be ridiculed for my work. But nothing of the sort happened. We had a very heartfelt chat about things without touching the subject of work. We remembered more about school concerts and trips, talked a lot about our class teacher, and at the end of the evening I was in a very good mood.
I was afraid for nothing. The kids are still so simple and hospitable. I even slightly regret that it will be many years before we meet again. But I hope I’ll be just as comfortable with them then, regardless of whether my situation in life gets better or not.
