The first job I ever had was at McDonald's. I know - the place that can never get your order right, the place that always has a broken ice cream machine, yet the place you always find yourself going to for lunch. After working at McDonald's on and off for a few years, I can really say I'm a different person. Working in food service was much more than just a first job because a food service job doesn't just teach you the importance of good work ethic or that being on time is important, but a food service job teaches you to be a good person. That's why I wholeheartedly believe everyone should be required to work in food service at some point in their life.

Have you ever read one of those crazy stories on Facebook of some middle-aged mother cussing out a sixteen-year-old kid because they forgot to put ketchup on her daughter's sandwich? Well if you haven't, know that it happens... A lot more often than it should.

Since I've worked in food service, I know mistakes happen. Fast food restaurants are busy. When you're moving as fast as you possibly can to take an order, make the food, assemble it together, bag it up and hand it out, it's likely that a mistake will happen. Forgetting ketchup on a sandwich is highly likely. I'm not saying every mistake is acceptable (because I've also experienced some fast food service that was far from acceptable) but a majority of mistakes are simple.

Just take the order back in, explain the situation to someone, and wait for your order to be fixed. Sure, you may loose an extra ten minutes of your day, but you'll save yourself the heartache of a blowup and you won't be known as the crazy woman who blew up at the front counter over some missing ketchup. You'll also probably walk out of the deal with some coupons even without acting like a fool.

I'm sure you're probably wondering why I think everyone should, at some point, work in food service. You're probably thinking, "I know not to blow up in teenagers' faces over a mistake on my sandwich, move on girl, I don't need to work at McDonald's to learn that."

Okay. There are many other lessons from a fast food job that I think should be requirements. Let's go back to the infamous broken ice cream machine.

If you work in fast food at some point, you'll learn that when it gets hot outside, and everyone wants ice cream, your machine will probably break. The equipment in your store has been making product for hours on end day after day...eventually, it's gonna take a shit. Sure, it's annoying on all of us when we pull up to the drive thru in the middle of July and all we want is an ice cream cone that we can't have, but at the end of the day it's just food.

Also, working in food service allows you to meet some of the most diverse people you've ever met. You'll learn everyone has a story - from the man who spends all day sweeping the lobby to the pregnant young mother taking drive thru orders to the sixteen year old boy standing at the front counter. You begin to see the human behind the person making your cheeseburger, and that pulls the compassion out of you like nothing. You've been there. You know what it's like.

And the next time you decide to stop in to your local fast food joint for a cheeseburger or some ice cream, you'll smile a little brighter at the person you hand your money to. You'll be thankful for the food given back to you. You'll actually be able to sympathize with them, and not just obnoxiously tell them how awful working in food service must be.

All in all, I believe the food service industry is a wonderful way to learn a lot about yourself and others. You're going to walk away from your time "flipping burgers" with a newfound respect for the people who do it every day for years on end, and you might just begin to see that those people are human, too.