It's about a 15 minute drive from her house. Out of the neighborhood, east on the highway, onto some small town roads, and then she has reached the coffee shop. She is working about 30 to 35 hours a week, closing many weekdays, and the odd weekend. In addition to her management position at a pizza shop (her main income), she works about 70 hours a week. Very few breaks and long days, but hey, this is summer, and this is where you save money for school. Unfortunately work at the coffee shop is a little too much. She only told them that she could work 20-25 hours a week when interviewed. It was supposed to be a second job on the side, some additional money, and she told them that too. Of course, once school started, she would have to work less. School comes first, and with being a manager already, she could only work so much. So they hired her, but somehow she finds herself working at a side job where she gets paid minimum wage as much as she is working as a manager. Of course, it looks like school does not warrant much consideration from management perspective, and what was once going to be focusing on school in the fall may end up being school and a lot of work.

She is also my girlfriend, and watching her have to sometimes stress out about this and other various circumstances makes me stress about it also. When you love someone so much, you never want to seem them suffer. You want everything to be good for them. And yet she often works a long week with very few breaks. I wish I could work some of those hours for her, but I can't. I wish she could have better managers, or that somehow everything will change. But it doesn't work like that. It's like you are watching your loved one play a basketball game. To sit in the bleachers clenching your hat while you watch him or her participate in a devastating loss is painful. You see them participate, begin the game with excitement, but then the stress begins and sometimes the frustration. You wish you could go down onto that court and help, do something, make it better. You love them, you want it to be better. But no, you shouldn't do that. We must all at one time or another go through those harsh times. What hurts more than seeing our loved ones in pain is seeing them in pain and knowing that we can't do anything about it. But what we can do is encourage, tell them we love them, and that we are their support. Let us not forget this.