My second post (yet my first in regards to talking about the various people that have helped change my life), I dedicate to the first customer I ever really got to know on a first name basis: Joe.
I required the use of a simple title for a simple relationship; the one between Joe and me. I first met Joe when I had been working at Smart & Final for about 2 months. Smart & Final is a business friendly market, meaning the majority of our customers are business owners that shop there because of the great benefits we have to offer them on sales taxes. Joe is one of them, the owner of a Mexican restaurant in Whittier.
When I began my job, I wasn't a cashier. I was a service clerk, which is a fancy title for someone who gets carts, does carry-outs (helps people take their groceries to their car), cleans up messes, and stocks the shelves. Basically, I was the water boy of a functioning grocery store.
On a hot September day in 2012, I was pushing a particularly excruciating chain of carts through the parking lot when I saw Joe pull in. He got out of his car and started talking to me. He asked my name, when I had started working at Smart & Final, and where I went to school--little details that most people never bother to learn about a person if they have the option of keeping a safe distance from them instead.
I remember how shocked I was when answering these questions. No stranger had ever taken such an interest in me or my adolescent life before. It made me feel uncomfortable; not in a bad or creepy way, though. Simply in the way of how strange it felt to experience a courtesy like this. Previously, I had spent my life surrounded by kids, who don't exactly tend to be the most polite. I appreciate Joe more than any of my other regular customers who have become such a crucial part of my life, because he introduced me to a kinder side of life. He made me feel important, mature, and (most importantly for a girl at the age of 17) adult.
Joe and I are no longer on a first name basis; instead, I am known as "mija" or "sweetie," and he is always greeted with a grin and an exclamation. On my worst days, seeing Joe can still make me light up and feel at ease. We aren't very close; I've never seen him outside of an employee/customer environment, and I don't know anything deeply personal about his life. However, I think the simplicity of our relationship highlights the point that my blog is trying to make: it doesn't take much to make a person happy. You don't have to move milestones to make someone smile. All you have to do is show them something they have never seen before. Show them kindness and love, and they will reflect it upon you.
