When UF was ranked the No. 1 party school at the beginning of the semester, I was not remotely surprised. The bar scene and nightlife have always been a significant part of college life in Gainesville.
I am at a bar at least three nights a week, myself, but I am usually the person pouring drinks rather than consuming them. I've worked in the same bar for the past seven years, which has allowed me to see how nightlife in Gainesville has evolved through legal crackdowns and championship celebrations.
You might be doing the math and wondering exactly how I've been in a bar for so long.
I started working during football season as a food runner when I was 14, moved up to cocktail waitress at 18 and began bartending about two years ago.
My job has definitely altered my personality throughout the years. Stories of drunken debauchery and bar fights no longer faze me. I have witnessed various sexcapades take place in bathrooms, hallways, parking lots, Dumpsters and right at the bar itself. While the younger, more naïve version of me was taken aback by this behavior, it now only serves as humor while I'm working (and possibly as an interesting story for me to share with my roommates and readers).
Working at a bar has a "cool factor" that being a cashier at Publix will never quite reach. I love that even though I'm at work, I still have a chance to socialize and see my friends. The bar is a place to cultivate relationships with people that I would probably never encounter in my academic or other extracurricular endeavors. I've served drinks to professors, roadies for Toby Keith, a couple straight from their wedding and, of course, countless UF and Santa Fe students.
However, being a bartender isn't always a party. The late nights can be tough to get used to. Getting home at 3:30 a.m. and making it to 9:35 a.m. class takes some practice and a cup of coffee or two.
Learning the limits of other people's alcohol consumption is another aspect of the job that you develop over time. The guy who tries to order four Jagerbombs, but can't pronounce the shot he wants, has had enough to drink. When a girl asks you for an empty pitcher for her friend because she's worried he's going to throw up, it's time for them to go. Although you sometimes feel like a "party pooper" telling people they're cut off, cleaning up after strangersquickly changes that feeling.
When people find out what I do, and how long I've been doing it, they're usually surprised. A girl who was in my reporting class saw me at work for the first time last week and could not believe that I was bartending because I was always "so sweet and innocent" in class, she said.
As far as I'm concerned, my job doesn't define who I am and in no way do I plan on bartending much longer than my college career. I do understand that for many people it's a way to identify me, and for the time being I'm glad that I've carved out my own niche in this great big university of ours.
