“Hi, welcome to Coldstone, what can I get started for you?”
Working at Coldstone is nothing glamorous, I’ll say that. Hours of standing, constantly scooping “Like Its” and “Love Its," and dealing with the longest lines on the hottest days, Coldstone was hardly somewhere I was excited to go work at. But somehow between the endless scooping and the constant greetings, I learned about human interaction at Coldstone.
I discovered that there were three clear archetypes of social interactions shown through the customers that came to Coldstone.
The first form of social interaction was friendship. We’re social creatures, from the moment we are born. At Coldstone, I saw the tail-end of this lesson. Of the teenagers that came into Coldstone, 99 percent of them were incredibly close to each other, making playful jokes and hardly having any tension or awkwardness between them.
Social interaction is engrained in our very genes. We need friends to be sane and happy, as crazy as that sounds. A research experiment was conducted in Australia examining the effects of social networks on the longevity of life of the elderly. The researchers discovered that, compared to the social networks with family, those of friends correlated with the highest protection against mortality. Basically, on average, simply having friends helps you live longer.
The second form of social interaction apparent at Coldstone was the foray into romantic social interaction. From the very awkward first dates to the couples that behaved like best friends, I got to see it all.
The science behind the idea of love is fascinating. Love is both something completely unexplainable and yet mountains of research have been conducted on what makes us fall in love. Sure, the science is there, but love will always remain the greatest and most wonderful mystery in this world. Awkward eye contact, fast-beating hearts, soft smiles, and genuine attraction were among some of the many interactions I saw happening between two people, who somehow came to find each other in a world of 7.4 billion, at Coldstone.
The third and final form was family. This is when romance becomes something more than just a relationship. From traditional families to not-so-conventional ones, Coldstone allowed me to see regular people interacting with each other. Laughter, smiles, hugs, and more were a part of the daily spectrum of actions and emotions that happened at Coldstone. We all know this already, but ice cream makes it pretty magical.
The most memorable family encounters were the ones where grandparents came in with their grandchildren. Attempting to win their affection with sugar-loaded treats, grandparents established some of the last, meaningful relationships they will cultivate in their lifetimes. The metamorphosis comes full-circle as in turn, their grandchildren start to embark on their own journeys into the vast unknown we call life.
As I hang up my black apron, decorated with ice cream stains galore, and remove my black visor, embroidered with the Coldstone logo, for the last time, I realize just how much of humans, of us, of life, Coldstone has shown me.
