COLUMN: Cache Valley cold no match for Quadside employee
With the sight of hoodies, coats, scarves and rapidly rubbing hands flocking on campus, it is easy to note that Cache Valley cold is quickly upon us. Most who experience this all too notable climate would say that now is the time to huddle up with a nice cup of coffee, cocoa or anything warm and try to brave the frost. This phenomenon makes life pretty busy for warm-drink suppliers like the Quickstop or the Quadside Cafe.
A quick word with Sage Sisam, however, will tell you that those days have already begun.
“We actually start getting rushes on the first day it rains,” said Sisam, who is in her third year working for the Quadside Cafe. “We get a big rush for hot chocolate or any hot drinks. It can get pretty crazy.”
Sisam, a 21-year-old senior, said she has thoroughly enjoyed her time working at the Quadside, because it gives her a ample time to focus on her studies, and it’s a relaxing and fun place to work.
“I love it here,” she said. “I didn’t expect to love a job like this as much as I do. I just expected I’d have a cafe job just to keep for a semester or two, but it’s become something I’ve been very attached to. It’s surprised me how much fun it is.”
Shifts at the Quadside usually go in short bursts, she said, as employees work between busy class schedules. Sisam said most shifts start out fairly basic — get an apron, clock in, wash hands and fill in for whoever has to leave.
From here Sisam is stationed wherever she is needed. There are several different posts that need to be filled: areas for making sandwiches, preparing hot drinks, taking care of customer needs, cleaning and organizing, and controlling the cash registers.
Although a shift requires juggling numerous responsibilities with frequent spurts of people, she said she enjoys the work.
If she had to choose, Sisam, a self-proclaimed fan of white hot chocolate and peppermint cocoa, said she especially loves preparing drinks for customers.
“It’s just a little more relaxing making drinks,” Sisam said. “It’s fun, too, because you get a bit of different exposure to people, because you can hand them a drink and talk to them a bit. It can wget really busy at times, but I really like it.”
When shifts aren’t too busy or there is down time during breaks, employees do their best to take time with customers who sit in the dining area, something Sisam said she feels is a an added perk to her job that most don’t normally get.
“It’s a fun place,” she said. “You always have the regulars come and sit at their tables. In school you usually only meet people in your major and things like that, and it’s cool that here I get to meet people I normally wouldn’t.”
Outside of work at the Quadside, Sisam said she’s especially grateful to work, go to school and live in an area that supports her studies.
A long-time dog lover and owner, she said she hopes to become a veterinarian and work with animals. Doing her best to broaden her horizon with animals, Sisam said she’s been volunteering at the Willow Park Zoo.
Sisam is also sectretary of the USU equestrian team and works summers in Vet Clinics where she said she has come to truly enjoy the trade.
“I remember taking my dogs to the vet as a kid,” Sisam said, “and I always had so much respect for the vets back then. From their I just always wanted to work with animals.”
After a more-than-full experience at her cafe shifts and experiences with animals at USU, Sisam gives a piece of advice to those looking to enhance their own college experience.
“The biggest thing you have to do is love it,” she said. “It’s hard to put in the work of grades, test and graduation stuff, if it’s not something you are really into and you aren’t having as good of a time as you want. You have to really love what you do.”
– steve.schwartzman@aggiemail.usu.edu