On the first day of my junior year of high school, I got a job at a local fast food restaurant. This was my first job I’ve ever had, and naturally I was both excited and scared. Every single day, I was concerned with the fact that If I did something wrong, I was going to get fired on the spot. Now, with that kind of mentality going through my mind, my performance was less than adequate.

I honestly didn’t know what on earth I was supposed to do for the first couple of days. Worse yet, I had no idea how I got through the interview. Because going over in my head? I honestly felt like I messed up at every turn. But after a while, things slowly managed to calm down and reach a set of normality.

I’ve seen a lot of people go in and out of the business, I’ve seen people come back to work after being gone for years, only to be there for a week or so, before leaving again. I’ve had so many co-workers it’s hard to keep track. And to be brutally honest, either I liked them or I didn’t. My memory is more than full of coworkers I did not enjoy working with, and even this past weekend, when I was home for the weekend, I did have to deal with coworkers who weren’t doing their job.

That’s one of the most infuriating things I’ve dealt with at work. Coworkers. It’s not the customers, or the fact that we don’t always have the food to sell, or some other reason that caused problems at the workplace. Your coworkers are one of the few things at work that are constant, always selling a different product or dealing with different customers. Every day I went into work, one of the first things I’ve always done is check out the daily schedule. I need to know who I’m working with, because that is going to tell me what kind of night I’m in store for.

Now, the way I’ve been saying this I might make it sound like I hate most, if not all my coworkers. There are without a doubt some coworkers I’ve enjoyed working with, some I’ve known since I first started working there. They’ve been good friends. When I worked with them, I didn’t consider it work at all. I actually found myself enjoying my time at work, despite dealing with the pressure of a job.

Looking back, I’d honestly call the job, a job. It wasn’t something that changed my life, or that I hated beyond belief. It was just a job. I went in and did what I was told to do. Curious to see how my coworkers felt about it, I took this as a chance to ask them. I got responses such as “Work is just that, it’s work… if you work with the right people… it can be fun and doesn’t feel like work.”, “Work makes me realize hard work and reward… teaches me cooperation… just not possible to do everything by myself when working.” And lastly, “Working has its pros and it cons… earn money and make friends… at the expense of not having time to balance your social life and just relaxing.” I asked three of the friends I’ve made while working my job, and unsurprisingly, our views are all almost exact about that place.

This has been my first job, and I don’t plan to spent the rest of my career there. I enjoy it and all, but the idea of spending the rest of my life there is something that horrifies me. It’s good work, I’ll probably need to stay there at least for the next few years of my college career until something else is established for myself that would be better suited for me in the long run.

Do I miss my job? A little. Do I miss the money I got from it? Hell yeah, I do! Do I miss my coworkers? Some of them, yes.

But I’m happy regardless that I can go to work and not hate every moment of it. That beyond the stressful moments of work, questionable management, and some not so nice coworkers, I’m able find moments that make it enjoyable. Part of me is actually looking forward to going back to work, if nothing else to see some of the friends I've made there.