Behind a long wooden bar marked with signs of age, Cassandra Ayars, 22, stands filling a Bud Light bucket with five of the dark brown bottles for a two-top table across the restaurant. Wednesdays at Four Corners are $10 domestic bucket days.
She drops the bucket off at the table before crossing the black-and-white tile floor marked with “UNC TARHEELS” in light blue tiles to go back to the kitchen. The 11 television screens in the bar area reflect the latest world, local and sports news. As Ayars walks out of the kitchen, 311’s song “Sunset in July” comes on the overhead radio.
Ayars makes a face at it.
“I hear the same thing every day,” she said with a sigh, clearing empty beer bottles off the bar.
Ayars graduated in May 2011 from UNC-CH with a double major in political science and history. A Baltimore, Maryland native, Ayars stayed in Chapel Hill to bartend at Four Corners; something many recent graduates have done as well.
UNC-CH had 5,780 students graduate in May 2011. Of these, 3,597 graduated with bachelor’s degrees and 1,278 with master’s degrees. Although not all of these graduates stayed in Chapel Hill, a number did.
“That makes me look so pathetic. ‘Hi, I paid for four years out-of-state tuition to become a bartender,’” Ayars said.
Ayars’s reasons for staying are simple; she didn’t want to move back in with her parents and didn’t know what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
“Right now I’m deciding between going to grad school and going to law school,” she said.
In the meantime, she keeps busy making margaritas, filling beer glasses and waiting on tables in this laid-back restaurant.
An assortment of customers occupy the long bar. Some are reading newspapers, others are working on homework and some are just keeping to themselves watching the always-playing TV screens. Every now and then someone walks in and requests a trivia box to participate in the ongoing game displayed on one of the screens.
“I’ll stay at least a year ‘cause that’s how long my lease lasts,” she said.
Across Franklin Street, past several restaurants and shops, is Top of the Hill. Here, two other UNC-CH graduates work and contemplate the rest of their lives.
Becca Seawell, 22, graduated with a major in international studies and a minor in journalism. She stayed in Chapel Hill to work at Top of the Hill and intern with VIF International Education.
“I didn’t feel like moving back in with my parents,” Seawell said. “I wanted to try to be self-sufficient for a while.”
For Seawell, moving back in with her parents means moving to Germany, where her father is stationed at Ramstein Air Base; but being self-sufficient isn’t as easy as Seawell thought.
“It’s tough. I work probably 50 hours a week because I have two jobs. It’s a lot of work right now. I feel like a single mom.” A regular day for Seawell starts at her internship at 9 a.m. but doesn’t end when she gets off at 4 p.m.
“I get a two-hour break, and then I come to work at Topo till about 10,” Seawell said. “I have Wednesdays off, but I grade trivia from 9 till 12 at [Topo’s] Back Bar. And I usually work a double at Topo on the weekend.”
Although she’s done with school, the pressure is far from gone.
“I thought the point of getting a college education was not having to bust your ass,” Seawell said. “Not bust your ass, but work two jobs just to get by; it’s funny because that’s what I’m doing.”
On a typical night at Top of the Hill, another December 2010 graduate of UNC works as a server. Jarrett Davis, 22, majored in history and political science and still lives in Chapel Hill.
“Going straight into grad school would have been too taxing mentally, not physically,” Davis said. “I wanted time to explore other subjects that I didn’t have time to before because of my rigorous school schedule.”
These other subjects are obvious as soon as you take a look at Davis’s book collection. Different world religions and social issues narrate the titles of his books arranged around a makeshift relaxation-worship area in his bedroom. Candles burn, and tapestries cover the walls and ceiling of this window-seat-turned-sanctuary.
“I like the small-town feel where you can walk pretty much everywhere if you don’t mind,” Davis said of the benefits of staying in Chapel Hill. “I like that it’s a college town because it offers more events that I can go to like plays, concerts, Clef Hangers events, basketball games and football games. And Halloween here is wonderful.”
Back in Four Corners, Ayars laughs at one of the regular customers’ advice to her about pouring draft beer. She has to stand on her tiptoes to slide the glass over to him because of her small stature. The neon Bud Light and Coors Light signs reflect in the mirrors decorating the wall behind the bar.
A question about regrets, if any, for staying in Chapel Hill elicits the attention of one customer at the bar — and seems to close the matter.
“What are your regrets of staying in the best college town ever?”
Sources:
Cassandra Ayars
Becca Seawell
Jarrett Davis
Sean Magee
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/08/1184506/thousands-graduate-from-unc-chapel.html