Food Service Blues

Remember how in my introduction I said I was raising money for Ohio State? Well, I finally found a job! I work at a local fast food joint in the next town over. I started Monday and I work every week day during the lunch rush. Despite what you might have deduced from the title, I love my job: it's consistent, fast-paced, challenging, and the team is great. So what exactly do I mean about "food service blues?"

Before I began my job in fast food, I was merely a consumer. Do I eat fast food often? Not really, I prefer home-cooked options. I'm not really into preservatives, genetically modified, or prepackaged foods. However, I have often complained about the type of service I have received, minutely messed up orders, or little irritations. More frequently, I have heard lots of other people complain, particularly about the franchise at which I now work.

On my first day, I made the mistake of thinking it was going to be easy. But I mean, come on, how hard can serving fast food really be? The truth is, the back of a fast food restaurant is a crazy place. There is so much going on that you never really thought about. There are people cooking the food, bagging it for the window, taking care of the guests inside, people cutting vegetables or doing dishes. There are people cleaning, putting sandwiches together, and the people ringing up drive-thru orders and taking money. Sometimes there's a whole other person making drinks.

My particular position is in the second of two windows taking the drive-thru orders. I am also responsible for making drinks for the drive-thru and keeping my area clean. (The whole restaurant is kept extremely clean!) I will be completely candid and say that it is an overwhelming job at times. I'm really grateful for my fellow crew members because they are really helpful. Everybody has each others' back. I think the hardest part is catching everything people say. Some people talk extremely fast and sometimes you simply can't hear them over rumbling engines, radios, noise from the kitchen, or the occasional static. I understand the irritation of being asked to repeat your order, but I promise we do it only to make sure you get everything you wanted the way you want it in the quickest time possible. Our guests are the most important thing to us and we do everything in our power to have great customer service.

I love my job. Not only because I feel challenged and like I can always improve, but because I feel enlightened to the skill it takes to serve fast food. I used to dread the idea of working in fast food because I thought it was a skill-less job and that people that work there are incompetent. I realize now how horribly wrong I've been and I would like to apologize to every fast food worker for stereotyping them. Thank you for serving me regardless of snarky comments, irritation, judgement, and impatience.

And to anyone who might be reading this, thank you. Thanks for taking this post into consideration, and for reading my blog. You rock!

Catching ZZZ

I live in the Midwest, Ohio to be exact, so my little hometown was greatly affected by what my mom calls "The Big Freeze" that swept the nation earlier this week. My younger sisters' school cancelled Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and delayed on Thursday, so when they had to go back to school yesterday at normal time, they were exhausted. They didn't do much or stay up terribly late while they were off school, so what was the big deal?

I took a Biopsychology class last semester and learned quite a bit about sleep. My professor explained in a lecture that teenagers have quite different sleep patterns than adults do. And adult sleep patterns don't kick in until about mid to late twenties. You see, in adults, the sleep hormone, melatonin, is released when the sky gets dark and feel sleepy a few hours later. For example, if the sky gets dark at 7PM, an adult will likely go to sleep around 9 or 10PM.

Teenagers, on the other hand, don't release melatonin until 9 or 10PM, sometimes later. As a result, they don't go to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. so, adults, when you make a comment about teenagers staying up too late, remember that it's actually part of their biology. Why? That I don't know.

Because of all of this, wouldn't it be wise to start school later? Adequate sleep could sky-rocket teenagers' performance in school and athletics. The big question from people I've talked to about this idea? "When will we have sports practices and games?" Well, prepare yourself for this drastic suggestion....., what if we shortened the school day? Woah, did she just say that?! Yes, I did.  Kids do not need 7 hours of school every day. Actually, I believe it's been suggested that they only need about five. So, if the school day starts at 10AM instead of 8, and school is shortened to five hours instead of seven, school would end at the same time it does now, leaving plenty of time for sports and activities.

A probable solution, now to get the adults on board!

A Little Introduction

Hello, anybody who happens to find and read this! I'm Rachel and I am a 19-year-old college student. I'll start by saying that I have blogged before. My first blog was the result of a Senior writing project and was called Inspirspectives. I quit writing on it because I started running out of things I wanted to talk about as a result of the limiting nature of the theme of the blog. Since I started college, I don't watch the news or have the time to compose the not-so-inspiring-stories into ones that are.

Anyway, I started out at Urbana University this past fall. I'll be honest, it wasn't my favorite place after I started. Drama spread quicker than in high school and I didn't feel challenged in the way I had expected college to feel challenging. I had plans to transfer next fall. Well, an old golf injury started acting up again and I went to see a specialist, only to find out that I needed surgery on it. Thinking that I would be in occupational therapy for a couple of months, I withdrew from Urbana and signed up for online classes at a nearby community college for the spring semester. I am now taking classes that will transfer to Ohio State next fall.

I am a psychology major. I prefer neuropsychology, but I find the whole field fascinating. Despite that, I am pursuing a career as an attorney. I hope to attend Yale or Duke and specialize in Constitutional Law as well as some other branch of law. I may minor in Latin or Marketing.

Also, I read a lot. I'm sure posts will come up raving about some book I've been reading. I love books. John Green is my favorite author and some of my favorite books include, The Fault in Our Stars, The Catcher in the Rye, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Happiness Project, and Pride and Prejudice. I am currently reading I Capture the Castle which was a Christmas gift from my boyfriend's mother. That's another thing I'll probably post about, my boyfriend, Garrett. Also, I am currently living with my parents while I raise money for OSU, so there may be posts about them as well. Finally, my New Year's Resolution is to be less anxious. I was diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder last year and I'm working towards being less influenced by that so I can be happier.

Well, that's all I've got for now! Thanks for stopping by!