DAY 27: Important words someone said to me

"In work, be a Type A person."
These are the words I was taught by the leader at my part-time job when I was in high school.
You can be however you want in your daily life, but when you are at work, you must be Type A (meaning serious and meticulous, as in blood type).
This became the root of my professional life, and even now, I still cherish that teaching.

I have a mentor.
It was the leader at the part-time job I had back then (hereafter referred to as my mentor).
My mentor was a freeter eight years older than me.

At first, I hated my mentor.
They were just so nitpicky.
Isn't a part-time job something you just do half-heartedly?
Since they were a freeter and their livelihood depended on it, they probably just wanted to be liked by the store manager.
I don't want to become an adult like that.
It is very rude of me to say, but I looked down on my mentor quite a bit.
I'm sure my mentor disliked me too.
Such feelings are mutual.

I was working part-time in the kitchen of a family restaurant.
I made food according to the set manual and served it within the designated time.
That was the job, so I did it exactly as instructed.
However, my mentor scolded me.
The food looks messy., they said.
Thinking that it's just a family restaurant anyway, I would reluctantly fix it many times.

On the other hand, the food my mentor made looked very neat.
Even though we were using the same manual, there was a world of difference.
Moreover, when I watched closely, their work was careful and their manual labor was fast.
And I noticed that there were no wasted movements, and their actions were fluid.
I started to become interested.
And after the shift, I plucked up the courage to ask my mentor a question.
Me:"Why do you have to make the food look beautiful?"
It was a pointless question from a stupid high schooler, full of bratty attitude.
But, unexpectedly, they answered me carefully.

Mentor: "It's our job to make the food, but after that, the hall staff takes it to the customer. If the food is messy, the hall staff gets scolded. If I were the one getting scolded, that would be one thing, but I can't accept other people getting scolded because of what I did."
I was surprised by the unexpected answer.
At that moment,I felt the switch of curiosity deep in my heart turn on.

Mentor: "Also, if you came all the way here to eat, wouldn't you be disappointed if this kind of food came out?"
Me: "If it were me, I'd just think, 'Well, it's a family restaurant, so that's how it is.'"
Mentor: "I see. Then, if you had a child in the future and came here to eat with them, what would you do if they were served food of that quality? Could you accept that?"
Me: "...I couldn't."
Mentor: "Exactly. All kinds of people come to a family restaurant. That's why you need to make the food carefully. Do you understand now?"
Me: "...Yes."
I was completely refuted.
My mentor was acting with a broad perspective, considering the various influences that could occur in other areas.
I felt ashamed of my own rash actions.
And,what pierced my heart the most was the phrase, 'Do you understand now?'

My father was a teacher, but he was the type to force his own ideas from above.
My feelings or level of understanding had nothing to do with it; his standard for evaluation was how well you could do exactly as he said.
I couldn't accept that.
I have my own thoughts, and there are other ways or even better ways to do things.
In the first place, I shouldn't have been doing anything to cause trouble for society.
However, it was useless to argue.
He probably just saw it as a child talking back.
At some point, I had given up on arguing altogether.
Thinking, 'It's no use saying anything anyway.'

Coming here, the part of me that I had been holding inside all this time was finally brought to light.
That's right, ever since I was little, I,"wanted to be convinced."At some point, the resignation that it was useless to speak up had taken precedence.
Like a fish finding water, I started throwing questions at my mentor one after another.
It was the first time I had ever had a serious discussion.

From then on, the mentor-student relationship between me and my mentor became famous at the workplace.
After the shift ended, we would move to the family restaurant parking lot and continue our discussions under the night sky.
Why must the food be served in 13 minutes?
Why must the rice be placed here?
Why is the omelet rice this shape?
There were endless things to discuss, from the trivial to the fundamental, until we were both satisfied.
Even on days when I wasn't scheduled to work, I would sometimes work for free because I wanted to put what I had thought about into practice.
Since part-time jobs are for earning money, working for free might have made me look like a pretty crazy high schooler to outsiders.
But for me, I was able to gain something much more valuable than a paycheck.

Finally, my mentor taught me the concept of 'investment'.
Even as a high schooler, I had the knowledge that investment meant spending money.
But there are things you can invest in other than money.
That is 'time'.
My mentor told me.
Mentor:"I don't know if the time I invested will come back. But if it comes back in the form of your growth in the future, I would be incredibly happy."

I can state with certainty that thanks to my mentor investing their precious time in me back then, the person I am today was formed.
I am grateful for the twist of fate that allowed me to meet someone I could call a mentor when I was young.