My roommate is a QuikTrip lover, and the obsession is starting to worry me a bit. With any addiction, I know how important it is for friends to notice the signs early. So this is what I've seen so far:
1. She has the app and you better believe she uses it.
Did you know QuikTrip had any app? Because I didn't. Most people, in fact, probably have not yet been made aware of this incredibly useful tool. All my life, I've paid full price for the pretzels, the Gatorades, the breakfast sandwiches - until the day came that I heard about the QuikTrip app. Now, neither myself or my roommate will ever be able to make purchases at QT without the possibility of a free Big Q at the end of the month again. There's no going back, people. We're in this for the long haul.
2. It's a family thing.
I met my roommate for the first time, and not too long after, QuikTrip became a topic of conversation. I could sense the emotion in her voice when she spoke about this beloved gas station -- but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the same emotion could be sensed when speaking with the rest of her immediate family as well.
3. QT is a part of every holiday tradition.
What does your family do on Christmas morning? Make breakfast together? Open presents? Spend time singing Christmas carols while snowflakes drift past frost-covered windows? Yeah, mine too. This was my idea of a normal Christmas morning, that is, until I met good ole' roomie. She and her family enjoy all of these traditional pastimes like the rest of us. However, everything takes a backseat to their annual Christmas morning adventure to the QuikTrip down the street. I rest my case. QT had taken control.
4. She is known and loved by the QuikTrip employees.
This soft drink-drinking, snack-food loving, Catholic family makes sacrifices during Lent like many others. They put away the Diet Coke, give up the gummy worms, and take their Lenten promises to a whole new level: they give up QuikTrip altogether during the forty days leading up to the holiday. This makes for one happy Easter, let me tell you. But when the big day comes, and the employees celebrate your return, the realization comes that your attachment to these people was a little more real than you thought, pre-Lent.
5. Her drink order has started to sound like something from Starbucks.
A friend was stopping at QT and, naturally, decided to get something for my roommate. I acted as an intermediary and relayed the order from QT-lover to QT-buyer, and then chuckled to myself as I read what had been requested: tea. But not just any tea: green tea, pineapple-papaya flavor, perfectly unsweetened -- oh, and crushed ice please!
6. The distance from our small-town college campus to the nearest QT was calculated on - you got it - move-in day.
I checked this fact with her before writing the article and she assured me that the distance had actually been calculated long before that. Priorities, people.
7. She usually pays for everyone, because every birthday present she's gotten in the last few years has included a QT gift card.
When I visited her for the first time, I felt bad allowing her to buy my soda every time we checked out. By the third trip of the weekend, however, I had noticed something. There seemed to be an endless supply of QT gift cards in her car, her wallet, everywhere. They never seemed to run out. It goes without saying that I was consoled, and to this day I allow her to share her good fortune with me.
8. She's an expert in her field.
Yes, she's a smart college kid with good grades, but that's not what I'm talking about. This is an education that can't be earned through lectures, labs, internships or time spent student-teaching. This is an education that is acquired by years of experience as a QT customer. She orders from the QT kitchen faster than your fourth grader does multiplication tables. You think your high schooler is talented when he juggles a backpack, tennis racquet, lunch box, and chemistry project? You should see my roommate juggle food and drink orders from 18 of our closest friends back at school.
9. Her love for this one of a kind convenience store is a selfless kind of love.
QuikTrip has variety: there are regular-QTs and there are super-QTs. I was content making visit after visit to the regular-QT, and never dreamed that I'd have a super-QT of my own just a few minutes from my house, like my roommate. Faith in humanity was restored, though, when I received word that my lowly location as home would soon undergo renovations and be transformed into one of the most beautiful establishments I'd ever seen: my very own super-QT. I was excited, sure, but no one was more thrilled than the expert herself, who's only desire is to spread the love for QuikTrip to even the most obsolete college towns.
10. She has begun converting others to the QT fandom.
I recently spoke with a friend who lives down the hall, and learned that her plans for the rest of the day included a drive to QuikTrip. It was then and there that I realized how widespread the epidemic had become. This friend easily could have stopped at any other local convenience store to get a bite to eat, but she was choosing to travel the distance to QT. It was made clear to me that this is no longer affecting just one person. This is no longer a minor concern. It has become a known issue, and apathy is no longer acceptable. QuikTrip has taken over the lives of college students everywhere, and I think this is something that needs to be addressed.
I'm trying to take action, but I'll be honest, I'm not completely sure where to go from here. I've heard rumors of support groups, counseling techniques, and different ways to counter the need for constant trips -- but who knows what the right thing to do really is? For now, I am simply trying to spread awareness and love her through this as best I can. If anyone has had a similar experience, and has successfully made it through, please let me know. Soon, if possible. I myself am craving a QT chocolate long john and am not sure how much longer I can last before the addiction takes over completely.
