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By Dr. Brian King

As long as I can remember, I have always been less affected by stress than those around me. I remember keeping calm in cars full of screaming kids, not getting worked up over setbacks, and just keeping my cool in situations that others seemed to lose it. I remember first learning the definition of “lackadaisical” when a teacher used it to describe my apparent lack of worry about something that was most likely, really, really important. For what it was worth, I always seemed to share my outlook with others whenever possible.

For example, when I was in college at the University of Texas at Austin I went to the campus store to buy a new computer. Upon learning my name, the student technician that was assisting me said “Brian King? I once worked with a guy named Brian King.” We figured out that at one point a few years earlier, we were both working at the same Taco Bell location. I didn’t remember him, but he clearly knew who I was.

Have you ever worked fast food? I spent my first few years out of high school working wherever I could. I stuffed tacos and burritos, flipped and flame-broiled burgers, I even cooked and delivered pizzas. Generally speaking, fast food can be extremely stressful. The pace is relentless, there is almost always a line of customers inside the store and in drive- through and all expect fast service. When things slowed down, management pressured us to look busy even if we weren’t. It was not unusual for me to be pushing a broom across a perfectly clean floor because there was literally nothing else to do. Not to mention that all of this activity was typically carried out in a steamy hot kitchen while wearing some form of polyester uniform. I made $3.35 an hour and was grateful for it. Not a lot of doors swing wide open for high school dropouts. I worked with an interesting assortment of retirees, ex- convicts, current convicts on work release, or general unemployables and occasionally there was a high school or college student. The computer technician was one of those students.

As he was going over the details of my new computer, the technician told me that the reason he remembered my name was because of something I had said to him. One day, during a particularly tough shift he was feeling a bit overwhelmed balancing work with school. Apparently, I said something like “Don’t worry about it, it is just Taco Bell” and reminded him to keep his eyes on the bigger picture, like that sweet student technician job waiting for him in the near future. Honestly, I have no idea what I said to him after “it’s just Taco Bell” but whatever I said worked and stuck in this guys head long enough that he thanked me for my advice years later.

Yeah, those jobs were stressful. School was stressful. Hell, life was stressful. At one point during this period of my life, I was essentially homeless. I slept bottom bunk with my best friend above me at his family’s trailer in the country. The few belongings I had were stored in another friend’s garage. I worked a series of low-wage jobs and

took classes at the community college, but I never let it get to me. I find it funny that when I meet people now, they know me as an educated comedian/speaker with a loving partner and an incredible kid. When I talk about handling stress, it’s because I have handled some stress.

This is how resilient people approach life, and the problems they encounter they see their problems or adverse events as temporary and or solvable. That was definitely the case for me in my early college years, I felt that my situation was temporary and under control. And it WAS!