As a kid, I'd always go to my city's local carousel and dream of being able to work at and operate the whole thing when I was older. It was always so bright and happy and optimistic and the music being blasted through the speakers was always so cheery. How could you not absolutely adore working in a carousel, right? Well, that's what I thought.

1. Music

I mentioned the music was cheery, right? Well it really is. For about 10 minutes. But when you work a 7 hour shift listening to the same CD with the same 8 bell-chirped songs on it over and over and over and over, you find yourself humming the band organ version of "Blue Danube" in your sleep. I won't even get started on the Christmas CD we put in during the holidays.

2. Seat belts

I know it seems a little weird for a children's ride to have such stiff security measures, but the carousel I work at goes about 8 miles per hour and definitely does have required seat belts. We always remember to take extra time to help little kids who don't know how to fasten the belts in addition to remind adults that yes, in fact, the seat belts are a requirement. It doesn't matter if you don't think the carousel "goes that fast" or you're "too old" for the required safety belt. People will do whatever they can to try to weasel their way around the rule and will say whatever they can say to try to convince you to let them do it. But let me fill you in on a little secret. No amount of cuss words or sneaky smiles will work on my perfectly trained, safety focused mind.

3. Standing

As mentioned before, our carousel is one of the fastest in the country. Whoever would even consider the idea of standing on it without proper training, in my opinion, is literally crazy. One of the training days to work there involved "how to jump onto a fast moving platform without falling on your butt." Yes, we do have to learn how to jump on in case of a safety emergency or a child becomes scared or unhappy. But any parent who has never visited our carousel will attempt to stand on the platform next to their child. While on other carousels, that may be a very acceptable thing. But on ours it's a different story. "I'm sorry, we actually cannot have anyone standing on the platform while we're in motion." "Oh well thats such a stupid rule." Sorry. It's so much faster than you think.

4. Middle-Schoolers

Little kids are fantastic. Old people are the best. Adults, after realizing how fast it is and eventually listen to you, are awesome. But middle schoolers take the cake for annoyingness. Take a group of seven 12-year-old boys and put them on something that has lots of rules. No wait, don't. It's awful. The one who gets the heavy brass ring will most likely throw it at you when he passes by, they'll scream cuss words at each other no matter how many toddlers or parents around, and no matter how many times you tell them to "please stay seated and buckled until the ride comes to complete stop," they will all rip their belts off as soon as you begin to start talking.

5. Weather

The carousel has 10 garage-door type roll up windows that we open in the summer time and, typically, keep closed in the winter. The awful part is fall. When it rains, it's cold but you want to still convey the message that yes, indeed, we are still open. If you keep the doors closed, people think the carousel is closed. If you keep the doors open, all the employees and guests will freeze their butts off. It's a lose-lose every time.

No matter how struggle-filled a day at work may seem, I love it. I work with the most amazing people and I'm always so happy and filled with energy when on the clock. It's a fun job and I wouldn't trade it for the world.