Want Fries with That?

As we have seen in this brief tale about someone’s experience at their first summer job, a large amount of responsibility is given to a young person and this is perhaps the first time these youths have seen any sort of responsibility. While changing out of his work clothes in the bathroom, Andy looks at himself in the mirror. Andy heard the manager say that a slug would have moved around the restaurant faster than this person would. Andy is glad that he is only starting his shift after the dinner rush has died down. Andy now feels like a rat in a maze, if he does not make it out in time, his manager will zap him with electric shocks until he does the job right. He touches his face and feels a glaze of grease baked onto it because of standing over the fat fryer for infinite hours. Before he leaves Andy checks his schedule to find out what day he will again have to walk through the fiery gates of hell and go to work again. Many workers compare this to shovelling coal into an incinerator or burning in the eternal fire of hell. However, a yelp from his manager awakens Andy from his daydream and he realises he will be spending his summer at this smelly and dirty fast-food restaurant, all for seven dollars an hour. Furthermore, as mentioned before, summer employment allows for development of social skills and work experience which, in many ways, are much more beneficial than the bi-weekly paycheque for the future of the individual. His shoes look as if they belong to a painter because of the many blobs of grease painted onto them.