I haven't worked at Six Flags St. Louis in a little over a year. Even though it's no longer my place of employment, I still talk to the friends I made, visit the park every so often with my mom and I still do some of the things that ride operators do. If you work at Six Flags or any other theme park and you have operated any ride, then you'll understand where I'm coming from.

1. You can measure something just by glancing at it

36 inches, 42 inches, 48, 54, the list goes on. If a ride that I worked at had a height requirement and had me checking kids' heights all day, I got so used to it after awhile that most of the time I was able to eyeball it.

2. A watch has become apart of your daily outfit

Due to safety concerns, operators weren't allowed to have their phones out, which is understandable. In order to be able to tell what time it was to do breaks, rotations and turnstile checks, mostly everyone had a watch, and for awhile, it became a part of my outfit, even when I wasn't working.

3. You measure time in 15 minute increments

Number two brings me to my next point. Because of breaks and rotations, we always did things in 15 minute increments and rotations were every 45 minutes to an hour. If you went on break at 12:15, you came back at 1. Measuring things in 15 minute increments were and will always be easier.

4. You measure storms in phases

This might not make sense to anyone outside of the theme park industry, but basically, storms are measured in phases, phase 1 being the least dangerous, so on and so forth. Anytime it rains, I think to myself, "This is definitely a phase 4, my ride would be closed."

5. You have backup pens

I can't tell you how many times I lost pens or how many pens I've lost in the four years I worked there. ALWAYS keep a backup, or two, or three...you might lose those, too.

6. You use hot water with ice

Everyone knows the cold water tastes disgusting. The hot water, for whatever reason, tasted better.

7. Every time you see trash, you think "don't pass it up, pick it up"

Every. Single. Time.

8. When someone says something to you, you say "10-4"

It's just a force of habit, alright?