Snooty People

I have been working at my first steady job for a month now. For those of you who don't know, I work as a barista at my school café. I work three days a week for a total of twelve hours. I have seen over a thousand people in my line of duty and after a while, you get to know people. Well, this post today is about snooty people ("snooty" for lack of a better euphemism). You know who I'm talking about--the kind of people who are fake nice, fake sweet, and fake tan. The kind of people who give you forced smiles, automatic polite gestures (the automatic part making the polite part meaningless), and quick goodbyes. At first, I always thought you could tell these people from the way they looked--from the way they dressed to the way they carried themselves to their complicated "sugar-free, nonfat milk, and of-COURSE-I-don't-want-whipped-cream" orders.

But no, actually, the people I am talking about aren't that easily recognizable at all. The ones who dress in skin-tight clothes, streak their hair blonde, and take half an hour to order a drink aren't necessarily like that at all. Some are actually nice. Some actually stop to talk to you. Some make you laugh. The feeling is one of humanity and goodwill and what's better, it's mutual. I learned not to judge so quickly on appearance.

The fact remains, however. There ARE snooty people out there in the world, but it is not the heavy makeup, the perfect hair, or the high-pitched valley girl voice. IT'S THE EXPRESSION ON THEIR FACE. While I've met people who I've misjudged to be uppity have turned out to be nice, the ones who dress like normal people and don't stand out in any special way, THOSE are the ones that surprise me by their snootiness.

How can I tell? Plenty of things, but mostly it's the expression on their face. That's what it comes down to, my friend. I can tell when they're being short with me. I can tell when they would like nothing better than for me to just hurry up. get their order, and scan their immaculate credit cards so they can move on.

I can tell when the smile really IS faked, when it's done out of pity or contempt or condescension. I can tell it's fake by the way it makes their eyes crinkle in an unnatural way. Not the way eyes sparkle when they laugh or feel awe. It's just in the subtlety of it all. It's also in the way they speak to me. Their "thank yous" are always cut short, right after the "thank" part. Behind that shortened phrase, there are subtle layers of meaning. Things like "Come on, let's get this over with."

And I never would have noticed from the outside. The snooty people dress like hundreds of my other customers. But their facial expressions always set them apart.

I wonder if it's just me they subtly treat this way. I wonder if it's just Asians. Or females. Or just people who weren't raised the way they were raised.

Or maybe I'm just cynical. Or looking too deep into this. I don't know. Maybe I need to go get my head examined. Maybe I just need to go to sleep. I think I'll do that. Ciao.