My First Month as a Hospitality Student

I’ve mentioned before a few times that I changed my major when I transferred schools.  I’m now in the hospitality department majoring in hotel management.  Don’t give me that look, yes I know what look you’re giving me.  It’s the “that’s actually something you can study?” look.  Or, perhaps it’s the “what do you do in class?” look.  I’ve seen a lot of those types of looks, believe me.

The program I’m in is pretty small; last year there was about ten students total that graduated from the hospitality department.  I told you it was small.

I’m only able to take three classes this semester, and only two of those are in the hospitality department.  I’ve only been in the major for a month but one thing is certain.  I LOVE IT.

Let’s put aside the fact that every class session we get interrupted by the chef in the kitchen next door bringing us food from and focus on the other important things.

We’re all friendly and easy to talk to.

I say ‘we’ because there’s not anyone (that I’m aware of at least) that are taking these classes just for funsies.  Our department is located on a different campus in a building that fits our department size: small.  We, as in the hospitality students, love our little program from what I’ve seen.

We’re easy to talk to, I mean, we’re HOSPITALITY students. If we can’t be approachable and easy to talk to, what are we doing in this department and industry?

I’m not going to lie and say I’ve made friends with everyone in the department, because that’s not true…yet.  I have had quite a bit of anxiety the last couple of weeks but it makes it so much easier when I can roll my chair (all of the chairs and tables in our main room are on wheels, just another reason to love this place!) to the next table and ask someone what they think about reading material and have a pretty in depth conversation about philosophies on running an efficient restaurant or hotel. Or, as I really enjoy doing, rolling to the next table and asking for any gross sanitation stories they might have encountered, because let’s be real, we learn what not to do from hearing the gross stories we’ve witnessed over the years.

Speaking of gross stories, we’ve gotten pretty good at those.  Ever been to a restaurant and see something nasty happen from one of the workers? You might have forgotten about it but if you sit with any of us from my sanitation management class you’ll probably remember it in a heartbeat because that’s like all we talk about.  We often get sidetracked from the lesson plan because one stories leads to another, and another, and another…  Yeah, it’s gross and makes you never want to eat outside of your own home again, but it makes you appreciate the service and food when you do go out and it’s all done correctly.  Oh, and for me at least, it makes me want to clean our kitchen like you wouldn’t believe.

In addition to these gross stories, we can point out how much bacteria growth your food has probably gained during the duration of your party because you’ve let it sit out for too long.  Don’t get offended if I don’t eat anything at your party, I’ve just grossed myself out thinking of the multiplying bacteria and the nasty affects that arrive with it.  We can also probably tell you what illness you have contracted from a restaurant if you’ve been feeling sickly. That is if you decide to tell me, your friend, if you have diarrhea, vomiting, a fever or nausea.  No, I’m no doctor, but I can probably point you in the right direction of the doctor who will diagnose you with those sickly pathogens.

You mentioned something about taking a trip in a few weeks.  Let us help you; we’ll find you the best rates for travel and lodging using our favorite sources, for free.  We’ll probably even recommend a couple of restaurants we want you to try and report back to us on and find interesting things to do and see.  You don’t have to do a thing but ask.

Besides being able to gross you out in probably less than three minutes, I have a feeling we’re pretty useful to have as friends now that I think about it.

The best part of being a hospitality student is knowing that because of the vastness of the industry, I’m not alone in thinking that I’m crazy for wanting to be in an industry that works 24/7, 365 days a year.