We're All Just People -- Weekly Inspiration from Carole
Our regularly scheduled Weekly Inspiration Post is interrupted this week by ANOTHER post from me, Carole. I know…you’re thinking: “what; why?!? I thought it’d be another 8 or so weeks til we heard from her again! Isn’t this a rotation?” Well, here I am again. Hopefully serving you some more inspiration or giving you something to think about today.
At first I wasn’t sure what to write about…after my last post, I was grateful that I had another 9 or so weeks before it was my turn again. But, here I am, post-less for today, and needing something to fill our little corner of the internet.
We have this pair of regular customers at my day job (as a barista) – a dad and his going-into-8th-grade daughter. They’ve come in almost every night this summer. They order drinks (different each night, which keeps it exciting for me!), maybe get pastries, and then either sit in the café area and chat, or wander around the store. (It’s absolutely adorable and makes me majorly miss my dad!) One night last week, after three months of serving them coffee, which includes talking to them for a significant amount of time, I learned what the dad does for a living. He’s an undertaker. Which I find absolutely fascinating.
People are so much more than what we interact with each day at work, theirs or ours. Currently, I consider myself Fifth House Ensemble’s Operations & Marketing Director first, a free-lance stage manager second, and a barista third. But I spend the largest portion of my time at my barista job. Coworkers and customers are always intrigued to find out that I work in the arts, and that that’s where my true passion lies. But tonight I learned firsthand that it’s the same for everyone…not just me. Take our ensemble members for example; they do all sorts of things besides playing and teaching with 5HE. Melissa has a huge garden. Adam goes out to eat and writes about it. Karl’s got this amazing fold-up-bike he rides everywhere. Clark works at the Music Institute of Chicago in Winnetka. Matt runs marathons. Herine loves to shop. Drew just got married. Eric’s a professional photographer. Jenny’s a toddler mommy. Crystal LOVES pastries. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
In a way, the conversation with this pair of customers (who bought 2 bottles of iced tea from our drink case and a slice of banana walnut bread) did for me exactly what I want this blog, and especially these Weekly Inspiration Posts, to do for you. It made the dad more human to me – less of a customer, and more of a person. I started this series of blog posts with the goal of making our ensemble & staff members more accessible to you. Whenever I see a show of any type, I’m usually awed by the performers, and I put them in this fancy bubble in my mind. But really, they’re just like you and me. And if any of you are like me, you might see or hear one of our concerts, and be blown away by the musicianship and talent in front of you. Hopefully these blog posts help you put personalities with the players. After all, even though I personally think our ensemble members are rock stars, at the end of the day, we really are all just people.
To stick with the theme of the post, here I am this morning...after I rolled out of bed and trekked to the coffee shop down the street from me to use the internet because I don't have it yet in my apartment. And you can check out the new haircut I got yesterday! Fifth House Ensemble