< Back to Oral History project: Waco Subminimum Wage Workers

ORAL HISTORY

Emily Smith

Emily Smith was born in Waco, Texas and began working as a restaurant server when  she was fifteen. By the time she graduated high school at seventeen, Smith’s home life had become unstable due to her mother’s struggle with addiction, so Smith moved into a shared apartment. She attended classes at Baylor University, and worked up to seventy hours a week serving tables at Cathay House and, later, George’s.  

Uninsured since the age of fourteen and struggling under the weight of full work and school schedules, Smith found herself navigating a series of mental and physical health crises in her early twenties, all while continuing to serve tables at George’s. Despite dealing with drunk and sexually inappropriate clientele, a lack of managerial support, exhaustion, and the burden of  medical debt, Smith still appreciates her work as a restaurant server for the living it can provide  her. She continues to foster her dream of becoming a high school history teacher. In the meantime, Smith has realized her more immediate dream of leaving Waco for greater opportunity and a fresh start in Austin, Texas.