Sprinkle some love in the hearts of USC staff

The dining hall food is bad. The lines are long. Your roommates are filthy. People eat like toddlers. Our lives are truly difficult, my fellow spoiled children. But let’s practice something from now on. You can do it! I believe in you! Brace yourself: quit complaining and be more grateful.

Hear me out first. I am just as guilty. I don’t think I can count the number of times I have complained about how long the dining hall lines are or how the wonderful people I live with let the trash in our bathroom overflow and just stare at it. Yes, it can be frustrating, annoying, irritating — you get the point. 

Take a minute to think about it. When you see your bathroom looking as good as new, do you ever stop to think, “Wow! I’m so grateful for whoever cleaned this”? As you stand in the long line waiting for your burrito bowl, do you think “They are really working so hard to make sure we can all eat and not leave us hangry”? As you pull your laptop out in your study lounge, eager to get in the studying zone (aka watch HBO Max), do you ever say to your friend who is also “studying,” “The tables are so clean today”?

Often, our first response when things aren’t exactly the way we want them to be is to complain. But when things are the way we want them to be, we do not think about the faces or the names of the people that made it happen. We just assume it’s supposed to be this way because the “world definitely revolves around us.”

I hate to break it to you, if you haven’t figured it out at this point: The world does not revolve around you. Thank the wonderful humans who cleaned your bathroom, the amazing people who feed your needy selves or the rockstars who work tirelessly to ensure that our school stays clean and sparkly — it’s the least we can do.

Now you might be thinking, isn’t it their job? Don’t they get paid to do this? Yes and yes. But think for a moment about the intensity of the manual labor, long hours and low wages relative to the work. Our wonderful housing and dining hall staff, like Myrna, a USC housing staffer of over 23 years, show up daily to serve the student body. No matter what you do, knowing that people see and recognize you for who you are and what you do is something that would encourage you to keep going at it despite the challenges one might face. 

The dining hall and housing staff are humans, just like us. They make mistakes. They have bad days. Sometimes, some things are just completely out of their control. So, sorry your bathroom in your on-campus dorms is not sparkly. Sorry your sandwich was not made to your liking. Sorry you have to wait in line for an hour for your food. Complain about it; That’s life. But remember, once you finish ranting to your bestie, remember to say, “The staff is amazing” or “They do a great job daily.”

My fellow pampered Trojans, I got some action steps for you and me: remember, I’m just as guilty. But it’s time to turn a new leaf; so, why not do it together? Greet any housing or dining staff you see, learn their names, ask how they are doing, thank them for what they do and leave some uplifting words from time to time. Take a moment of your day today, tomorrow, next week and have a conversation with them. I can assure you one thing: you’ll learn something about them as much as they’ll learn about you.

If I’ve had your attention for more than a minute, that means we’re besties at this point. So, besties, let’s celebrate our lovely and phenomenal housing and dining hall staff. Use my steps and don’t just let it go out the other ear. Gratitude matters more than you think and while it’s a cheesy statement, treat other how you’d want to be treated. It doesn’t take much, just a sprinkle of kindness.