I had to laugh at what the lady in
Super One said.
I was at the store last weekend when a
lady pushing a shopping cart spotted me & walked over. I thought
she was gonna say something about the South Marquette tour, a thing
about which people are STILL talking. I was wrong, though. She said,
and I quote, “I just wanted to let you know that I could never do
your job. I don’t have enough self-control”.
The comment made me laugh, if only
because there’s actually someone out there who thinks I have ANY
self-control. But she went on to explain that her comment stems from
one specific incident from a couple of months ago, when someone
called for an Instant Request for their parent’s 50th
wedding anniversary. Being naturally curious, I asked the caller if
they were gonna do anything special for their parents that night, and
their response was this—
“Yeah. I’m gonna take ‘em out to
Burger King”.
Now, I had entirely forgotten about the
call, but it made enough of an impression on the lady in Super One
that she wanted to mention it to me. She said that if she was in my
place, she would not have had my response, which was my usual way of
dealing with something quite out of the ordinary, my use of the word
“okayyyyyyyy...”, stretched out just like it’s written and
delivered with a rather quizzical tone. She said that she would’ve
made sure the caller knew that, just perhaps, Burger King isn’t
quite the place you wanna take your parents on their 50th
anniversary.
And that’s why she doesn’t think
she could do my job.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned
in the three decades I’ve been doing what I do is that there are
all kinds of people out there. There are happy ones and sad ones,
funny ones and serious ones, loud ones and quiet ones, and ones who,
for their parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, throw a big
party for them or just take them out to Burger King.
Every person is different, and deals
with things differently. Maybe this person's parents LIKE Burger King, or maybe Burger King is all they can afford. That’s why, when I get a phone call like
that Instant Request, I just let it play out, and see where it goes.
Sometimes, you get a good phone call. Sometimes, you get a chuckle.
And sometimes, you even get a moment that sticks in the heads of
people who are listening. That’s when I know I’ve done my job.
As for that whole comment about me
having any kind of control, self or otherwise...well, that’s a
topic best left for another day! But thanks to the lady in Super One
for letting me know that I made an impression. That’s the kind of
feedback that I really appreciate. I just hope I can keep making
more of them as the decades wear on.
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