A Letter to the Reader: (In which I address the issue of writing about real people)

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”

-James Beard

If you’re reading this then you’ve no doubt accidentally stumbled on this or followed a link I posted. That’s alright though because, you see, this blog is all about accidents. No matter how you got here, know that you are welcome. You won’t be judged.

This blog, this collection of writings, is an invitation for you to step into a family that you may have not known existed. A family where mistakes are expected and applauded. A family where, no matter how horrible of a day you’re having something will always go right…it just might take a little squinting to see what it is.

From here on out you will read about real life events happening to real life people. Every word is true. Every tear, laugh, and experience happened to someone in a little city in Kansas, USA. Yet, I must confess that the truth will be littered with lies. Every name you read will be false. In order to protect the identity of those in these posts I will be changing their names, but each person represented here exists.

This is because the issue with writing about real people is that one does not wish to ruin their subject's lives. I do not wish for any of these stories to come back to haunt my friends and co-workers. Giving you their true names is almost an invasion of privacy and since I won't be asking for any of their permission to use their real names you will be given their false ones. The ones I create for them.

This is not fiction. This is not fantasy or romance. This is real life comedy. The writing here is meant to be light-hearted. The experiences I share are being shared with a good heart and good intentions.

I do not wish for you to laugh at the people in these stores, but with them. My wish, my hope, is that you will find yourself somewhere in these words. That they will bring you a laugh when you need it the most or a spark of hope to keep you going through out your day.

The experiences I’m sharing come from a cafeteria located at a college in Olathe, Ks. They are from the student staff that both have previously and are currently working there. Some of these experiences come from 2010, others are much more recent. I will be attempting to keep them in chronicle order. Or as close to chronicle order as I possibly can. And I will provide the year of each event at the begging of each post.

We, the workers of this fine establishment, came together for the sole purpose of earning a paycheck to pay for our tuition. We stayed together because of the community we found. James Beard, an American cookbook author and chef, said that food is the common ground for us. It is what unites humanity. Food united us. It taught us the value of non-blood family and sometimes it was there to remind us just how human we really were.