Sometime ago, Yaya heard from one of her classmates that a restaurant near our home is hiring wait staff. She printed her resume and asked me if I could drive her to the place, which I did.

“Aren’t you coming with me?” She asked.

“Nope” I replied. “You will have to do this on your own”.

“But, Mom, I don’t know what to do” She replied.

“Well, it is not a big deal. All you are going to do is to walk in to the restaurant, find the manager, introduce yourself and tell him/her that you are interested in working there and hand in your resume. I know you can do this”

I felt end of next year she will be in Uni and will have to do this by herself and it is better that she learns to do all this herself.

She looked stressed and I was tempted to go with her, but I didn’t. Eventually she got out of the car and went to the restaurant and handed in her resume. Few days later I got a frantic call from Yaya telling me that she received a txt from the restaurant and they want a trial that day from 5 to 8 pm. Yaya had afterschool work that day and wouldn’t have made it to work on time if she was going to take the public transport. So I offered to pick her up from the school and drive her to work. I  bought a box of chocolate for her, knowing very well that she is stressed, hungry and tired and the best remedy  is a box of chocolates. She ate all the chocolates. I also took a scrunchie for her hair because I know wait staff must tie their hair. She thanked me for remembering the scrunchie. As she got out of the car she said “Mom, I am scared”

And I replied “that is a natural feeling. Remember the worst that can happen is you don’t get the job, but it is still not the end of the world. You give your best shot and I am proud of you”

She got the job !