The End of an Era

I am coming to a point in my life where I must give up something I love very much. It is something that has meant the world to me for five years and counting.(but I guess when you think about it, five years is just a fraction in your lifetime). For five years I have invested my time, invested my energy, invested my zeal into a little box located fifteen minutes from my home. I must leave this place soon and venture out into a place I know little about...the world. But I feel so comfortable here...
Who would ever think you could become so attached to a corporate owned restaurant chain located in the middle of Northwest, Indiana? It is hard to visualize my life if I have never been there. I have cried there, made friends there, gotten sick there, had the best conversations of my life there, learned most of what I know about sex there, ate there, read there when I didn't want to go home...
I think working in a restaurant can be one of the best experiences a person can have followed by the worst. I have never loved something so much and hated it equally at the same time. It is folklore in its' purest form. A culture created. It cannot be like any other because we created it. There can never again in the whole existence of the universe be a group exactly like us. In this small atmosphere relationships are made and broken, life lessons are learned, dirty jokes are told, people's feelings are hurt, people laugh till they cry, yelling, hugs, drinks are poured, dishes are broken along with hearts, different nationalities collide, profanities are yelled, nicknames are coined, company is enjoyed, money is made, tables are wiped, floors are swept, girls are swept too but off their feet, flirting is regular, customers are regular, chocolate moltens are desired, friends are bailed out of jail, feelings are shared, arguments are frequent, customers are rude, time is always on our side... I could go on. This is the time in my life that I will look back on when I'm forty and think that this here and now was the best time of my life, and I never want to forget it. It will be hard to let it go.