Rhetoric At Work

     So after a grueling weekend of two 9 hour shifts at Chipotle, I found myself half-heartedly rolling burritos and beginning to do the unthinkable- relate my life to things I learn about in class.   I started to notice certain things in the way people talk to me- the frat guys with their Greek letter sweatshirts and bravado when they ask for "double meat", the sports teams who walk in like they own the place and all order the same thing, donning their Penn State Rugby team sweatshirts and sweatpants (seriously, do sports guys own any clothes that don't pay homage to their sports team?), the sorority girls who give me condescending looks and quietly order salads, sans the dressing of course, the geeky guys who are infallibly polite and make me want to throw myself over the counter and hug after a long day of scooping rice for ungrateful pricks, the people who barely speak English and frantically point to ingredients, the adults who walk in, lists in hand, attempting to order meals for an entire family, the young parents with their infants in tow, brandishing their baby proudly as though I'm going to give them free burritos just for having to change diapers.  All kinds of people come in there- some loud, some soft-spoken, some obnoxious and others polite, some with polite smiles and others with creepy winks that make me internally shudder.  Rhetoric is in everything- it's in the way my boss tells me I have to move faster, in the way the cooks communicate with each other, sometimes loudly but always respectfully, in the way the cashier requests politely that customers sign receipts and in the way boys try to charm their way into skipping the extra $1.80 guacamole charge.  Rhetoric shapes everything we do in the way of communication...funny how the things I learn in school sometimes, maybe apply to the real world :-P