Respecting my elders

Sometime within the same year of working at McDonald's, my mother decided that it would be beneficial for me to spend some quality time with the senior citizens at the rehab facility she was working for at the time. From what I remember, I started as a volunteer once or twice a month assisting the Activities Director with...activities.

The activities themselves were pretty straightforward - sing-a-longs, card games, bowling (with a ginormous plastic ball and pins), Bingo, Pokeno, storytelling, or whatever felt like a good thing to do that day. The people there were really sweet, some a little challenging but nothing that wasn't manageable. The hardest part was working with the Activities Director, although good natured and well-intentioned, her voice sounded like opera - all the time, in regular conversation, nonstop. Imagine asking someone a question and they reply by singing their response, in an operatic tone. Yes, that is what it was like. If you want to take it a step further, many of the senior citizens had hearing problems, so she had to speak louder so they could hear her. So, now imagine opera amplified.

To my surprise, she hired me part-time as an Activities Assistant - great news but guess what else, more opera than I knew what to do with. It all worked out because the more experience I got, the more she pulled away and I coordinated the Activities by myself.

The moral of the story is that there really isn't one, it just makes me laugh when I think about the operatic Activities Director. Plus, spending time with the seniors wasn't a bad use of time either.

Getting back on track...

So by the time summer #3 rolled around, I was 16 and was eligible to get a "real job." One of my close friends worked at the McDonald's in the town I grew up in so I applied there, she put in a good word and the rest was history.

People get really frustrated with me when we go through a drive-thru and I don't know what I want and I ask the person to wait for just a moment. I know this is not unreasonable because I did this - for over 2 years! I started at the bottom at the register but when they realized how efficient I actually was, I worked the drive-thru. When you work at a fast food restaurant, especially in the drive-thru, there are time standards for how long it should take to process an order from start to finish. I believe the average is 2 minutes, believe it or not! I mastered the drive-thru and saved their processing times if I don't say so, myself!

There were some fun times and "challenging" times - as you can imagine. But in the end, I believe it set the tone for the development of my work ethic and interactions with different types of people.

Project management, conflict resolution, accounting, goal setting, tracking and managing productivity, anticipating clients' needs, sales, marketing, etc. are things that people may $30K+ for in an MBA program. My only cost for learning these things was a little hard work at my local McDonald's.

My Personal "Role Models" Story

Although I didn't see the actual movie, just from the previews I could tell that it was built on truth. My second job was the following summer working as a park district camp counselor for grade school children.

Growing up in such a large household, I thought I had a good idea of how to work with and interact with children. The first couple of weeks were spent planning and preparing for the camp...then the children arrived. For the first week or so, everyone was on their best behavior, taking time to get to know each other and settling into their environment. The weeks after that were some of the hardest days of my life.

I understood that some of these children were dealing with some real issues, being adopted, experiencing divorce or just being dropped off every day so they weren't a burden to their parents. So the days would start out fine - energetic, fresh and curious. By the morning snack, all hell would have broken loose and someone would be crying - sometimes one of them, sometimes me.

We had some good times, even some great times but we also had some challenging times. I do think about those kids sometimes and as a result I have nothing but the utmost respect for anyone who works with children. They also reminded me of what it was like to be a kid and how impressionable and vital guidance is in those years.

Although it exhausts me to think about it, I also think about how clever and imaginative children are and I do look forward to being a parent someday.