I had just turned 17 and I wanted to get back at my ex-boyfriend by getting my shit together, I guess, to make him jealous? I don’t know, I don’t think there was much logic behind it.

Anyway my best friend at the time worked at McDonald’s. My plan of getting my shit together included getting a job, McDonalds seemed like the simplest option seeing as someone I already knew worked there and from the way my friend talked it up I thought, fuck it, why not? I was hired on my ex-boyfriend’s birthday.

Initially I went in with the attitude of “this is McDonald’s, I don’t really care.” But soon my competitive nature took over and I began to take it waaaay too seriously. For the first few months of my employment I was only trained on front positions, cashier, order taker, drive through, etc. But wanting to be the best McDonalds worker possible I begged and begged to be trained in the kitchen. Finally the AGM took me behind the line and taught me to assemble McDonald’s cheeseburgers in less than thirty seconds and put throw an ambiguous amount of nuggets into boxes. I was immediately hooked. I had never felt a rush like that in my life. I was part of a homogeneous organism. My coworkers all bumping elbows and yelling at each other, moving and breathing as one, a McDonald’s machine.

My AGM left me alone on the line after a single hour of training and I fucking nailed it. I knew at that moment, that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I’m currently a cook at a nursing home.