How a Fast-food Job Changed Me. Colleen Hamill

“Would you like fries with that?” Very few, if any, aspire to say that phrase at any age, but I’ve been lucky enough to have been saying it since I turned fourteen. Almost every teenager loathes getting a first job, but for me working at McDonald’s for more than my entire high school career has honestly changed my life. This job not only made me learn how to balance a vigorous schedule, but also changed my outlook on life completely. This job made me realize how different the real world is from the world I knew, transformed me from a naive and inexperienced eighth-grade Catholic school girl into a high school senior who now has a better understanding of society and dreams of changing it.

A job where I flip burgers is the reason I am able to be a responsible and balanced person. When I first started, I had feelings of pure resentment for my job, as it prevented me from having time for fun and doing “normal teenage things.” Now I am beyond grateful to have worked those hours, because they made me appreciate my free time and forced me to coordinate what feel like countless things at once. From my first day of high school, I was able to find a balance between doing well in advanced classes, sports, extracurricular activities, and a...