When I was sixteen I realized I wanted a job. It wasn't like I was forced to get one or anything like that, but I thought it would be nice to have something part time to put on my résumé. So, I went on a total job search and submitted applications to shoes stores and retail shops and cute little boutiques... but no place was hiring, or at least no place wanted to hire me. Except for Chick-Fil-A. The spot that served those famous sandwiches with the pickles-- the spot where everyone went after school. Yup, that's where I decided to work.

After going through the process of two interviews, I had to go through a week of three hour training. I watched videos and took quizzes, and it wasn't long until they gave me that horrid black and maroon uniform with a matching hat. For a few days, I was trained on the front counter register while being watched by the higher-ups -- they were watching me to make sure I was smiling and using the correct "Chick-Fil-A jargon." Think about the training a Disney Princess at Disney World has to go through to make the cut. That's exactly what it was like for me because I was also picked to be Snow White for princess night, and I was trained even more for that.

Once you're thrown into the craziness that is this franchise, you will quickly learn that everyone who works there takes their job very seriously, most people there sleep together at some point in time, or start multiple rumors, making the gossip never ending, and you'll learn all about #chickfilaprobs, as well as the many benefits there are to working at CFA.

Sometimes, people would get really upset if the sauces were stocked incorrectly, or if we didn't push enough cars through the drive thru window, we would be questioned as to why. I understand that it can be frustrating to have things in incorrect places, but there shouldn't ever be a need for someone to throw a temper tantrum over it. And as for the pushing cars thing, I learned that working at CFA is all about making money for the operator. If he happened to be there, and we weren't doing everything we could do possible to make money in that hour, he would stand over us, breathing down our necks for the next hour. Or if the cooks weren't producing food fast enough, he would go back to the kitchen and yell at them, which really hurt my heart and made me cringe.

Just like in most restaurants, people work in close quarters, so girls' periods are in sync, boys' horniness levels are always in sync, and sometimes there are a few people who end up having sex. It's just the "food industry norm." However, if you're in a relationship with someone outside of work, there will be many guys trying to get you to go home with them after work or kiss you in the parking lot. It just happens. But when people finally sleep together, one of them will tell somebody and that person will tell someone else, and everyone will know what happened the night before within the hour. Even newbies, who begin working there months after it happened, will find out. And if you aren't sleeping around with people there, then you're either in random, juicy gossip (which were usually rumors), starting gossip (more rumors), or a total outcast (which was me).

There were so many rumors. People would come up to me, the little wallflower that I am, and tell me things, then walk away. I had so many secrets held tightly to my chest, but since my hair was flattened by a hat, it wasn't ever big (Mean Girls, anyone?). But I never told anyone what people would tell me because I wasn't looking to make friends, nor was I looking to get one anyone's bad side. I wanted people out of my way, so I stayed out of their way. But I learned pretty fast that people were quick to shove you to the side and make you an outcast if you didn't want to participate in their gossipy scandals. And I was just fine with that. As long as I was getting my paycheck, I didn't care what was happening there.

But most of the time I had to care about a lot of things in order to do my job. Welcome to the segment of the article that is #chickfilaprobs. Let's take a moment to name some of my favorite struggles:

1. When you start to feel like a bad person because saying "my pleasure" is actually a lie.
2. When someone pulls up to the window after ordering $130 worth of food and "forgets" their card. So you just stand there as they "look" for it through their purse. Then once they realize you ain't budging, they magically "find" it.
3. When people insist that they can still use the May calendar card in August and they argue with you.
4. When a car pulls up to drive thru at 9:59 and you still gotta serve them. And then you hate them especially more when they order a well-done sandwich with well-done bacon, cheese, and well-done fries x2834.
5. When you realize that the general public is stupid as fuck, so you lose your faith in humanity.

Although, all day every day, the struggles working there were so real, there are many benefits to being an employee at CFA, though. For instance, you get free food after working there for a year, and if you're new, you get 50 percent off. If you work there long enough, they'll give you a paid vacation. I never got paid vacation, but I got a lot of vacation time over the summer, and they could've been passive aggressive about it, but they weren't. They would ask me all about my trip and what I had planned. It was really nice. And in terms of being a high school student, they were very flexible with me and my hours, like toward the end of the school year when I had to request off three days out of the week to study for AP tests. Moreover, when I went off to college, they let me come back to work and gave me good hours. But I think the best part about working there for so long was that I was able to develop relationships with customers that would always swing by the drive thru. CFA is known for having their "regulars," and some of those regulars were my regulars and would ask for me and we'd chat, and it was all really nice -- that was something that I enjoyed.

Working at CFA made me a stronger person because when a patron made me cry, I learned to hold it in for an hour of two until I could excuse myself to go to the bathroom to let it all out. It also made me a hard worker because when I went off to college, I knew exactly how to clean up messes properly -- disinfecting and all. I also learned how to be more patient with people because when a customer would just stare at the menu for five minutes without talking, I was able to hold it all in and not yell, "BUT SIR, THERE ARE ONLY ELEVEN ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM." I really enjoyed my time at CFA and everything that working there taught me. It's a really great, stressful, and life-changing experience.