To Pickle Or Not To Pickle

I was kind of uncomfortable to go to McDonald's and order a McGangbang. So I’ve decided to go with pickles. A week ago I went to McDonald's at 9:30 and was kindly asked to come back later, because they were serving breakfast – who would know?! Not a regular any fast food customer I was pleasantly surprised by this discovery, and went home empty handed that day. As the due day was approaching I was getting more and more anxious about the project, so I took a trip to the same McDonald's restaurant, which is located in Bay Ridge Brooklyn. I was hoping to avoid the crowd after work, but by the time I got to the restaurant it was busy, so I took the line anyway. When the young girl call for next customer I stepped up and took my phone out of the pocket so I could find the exact instructions for the project. She took my order without even blinking, not even after I requested to have a receipt that reflected my entire order with all extra wishes. Then she excused herself and stepped to the “kitchen” where she was asking if guys can manage to insert some extra pickles into my burger and she came backed seemed satisfied with an answer. On a way back she asked a girl who was on a frying machine to get her small unsalted order of well done fries.

After I exchanged my money for the receipt I took a step aside so I could see what my girl will be doing to complete my order. She stepped back to the kitchen area again and it took her 3 minutes to comeback with the small package in her hand, not sure what she was doing there but it seems that there was a group of people deciding on how to arrange pickles. While she was gone I was monitoring a girl who was in charge of the frying machine. She was making new fries so I can have it unsalted, despite the fact that while I was about to place my order she finished making it. So she took fries out of oil and she absolutely forgot what my girl have asked her and she put salt on everything again.

“Thank is nice!” – I thought to myself, “Will they give me salted fries pretending it is unsalted, or they will fry another pack of potatoes?” Then I saw an alder woman coming to me and asking me what was I waiting for, and I told her pointing on my girl that she got my order. She smiled to me and went back to serving next customer. I took a look at my watch – seven minutes have past since the moment of my order, not very impressive for a fast food restaurant. When my girl was asking for the unsalted French fries small order they both realized that they have to make more fries to complete my order. Only after this my girl came by and apologies for the delay, and explained what I was observing all this time. Two or three minutes later the older woman asked my girl why I am still waiting and I was very pleased with her concern.

Fourteen minutes later I received my order and more apologies for waiting. I can say that my overall experience with McDonald’s service was not negative at all; nevertheless the waiting time was not acceptable for a fast food restaurant. My order was exactly what I’ve requested it to be – my fries was unsalted and my pickles were arranged in a pretty flower pattern. Even though I am not a fan of a burgers in general and I have no one to share it with I placed it straight to the garbage bin, but I did enjoy the fries which I had to sprinkle with some sea salt at home.

While I was waiting for my order I noticed that some people from personnel were constantly going to the “kitchen” area to ask some specifics about orders they were placing. Were they checking on a kitchen staff handling their orders or just checking if they have specific food for serving I am not sure, but there was a constant collaboration among everyone within personnel of that restaurant. The place was very clean and brightly lit. I also saw one manager briefly walked around to check on everyone, but no one seemed to paid attention to him since there were lots of people in lines. Everyone who was taking orders looked very attentive to their customers and smiled, which I think is not really common in fast food, which game an impression that good training made it happen.

And this is my actual small hamburger, it didn't look very edible to me.

CAN YOU TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS?

I really enjoy any class of our activities, because it is exciting, not monotonous, and not by the book kind of thing.  That is the reason I like this class the most of my other classes, even though exams are not so easy. So the test we took was interesting as well. The questions are pretty simple - you just have to describe your personality. But how objective we are in terms of self-evaluation?

Did you ever had a moments when you mother tells you one of you character traces and you go “WHAAAAT?!?!” Or when your friend tells you – “You are so ….!” and you begin to think if this really true. I had couple of moments like that, and it is a real discovery how other people see you compared to how you see yourself.

But let come back to what I need to write about. So I am a strong SC type, which stands for “Steadiness” and “Conscientiousness”. And that is when I had my moment of “WHAAAT?’. Am I tending to perform in predictable manner, or demonstrating patience…hmmm, how do you measure patience? I can tolerate some things more or less, but I cannot call myself a strong patient person as this test showed. I also tend to flame fast and want things to be my way if I see that it will make things better. I also loose interest really fast in something that I do day after day. I have to drag myself to the gym, because I think of sports more of a game and not pulling up weights, but I just have no other time to sign up for other activities besides what I have right now and I like to stay in shape. I am absolutely conscientious but don’t go crazy on it. Thinking analytically and being diplomatic that is what I am. But I have a soft character and I am kind of missing dominance, and maybe some influence. But it also I think it depends on a situation. When I am with my boyfriend he is totally and absolutely dominant and strong character, or maybe I am the one who is giving him this power over me. But with others I am much stronger and have some partial influence on others if I am the expert of the situation. Nevertheless, I tend to make things appropriate for everyone, or I would feel selfish and disrespectful to other people wishes.

When I came to USA by myself I felt that I am little baby – I had to learn how to speak, how to understand, and how to read. I also was very shy and for some reason was afraid to look people straight in the eyes, which wasn’t helping me at all. But one day I realized that it is keeping me down and I’ve decided that I have to change and forced myself to look in the persons eyes when communicating. I also was reading out loud anything that I could lay my hands on, so I could get used to my own voice when speaking foreign language. I would dare myself to something small every time I was afraid of doing. And believe me it gave results, which I did not expect at all.

There is a Russian saying that I can prove wrong - it is impossible to teach an old dog new tricks. I think that people can develop DISC types of character with work and practice. We gain experience and expertise, we can become better or worse. We all change constantly over time throughout our lives and only we in control of it.

DO YOU HAVE A SCENARIO FOR YOUR LIFE?

 Growing up I had a dream of becoming pediatrician. I saw my friend's mom being one and I thought to myself that it would be cool to help little kids. Once she asked me who do I want to become when I am grown up, so I shared my idea with her. She looked at me and said - "If I were you, I would think of something better, because this job is very unappreciated". And she was right - doctors in then USSR were making pennies for the job they were performing and the hours they were putting into this profession. I remember that it was very sad to hear her saying that and dropped the idea.
 It is very sad to see people not enjoying what they do professionally and when I came to United States I wasn't sure what I want to do either, first of all the choice is limitless. You can basically do anything you want, anything is possible in USA, given that you have a desire for it. I feel that the movie we saw in class was not created just because someone wanted to get some money out of it, but because it is a big problem among young and not only people to decide on what their purpose in life. I was among that people and I can still relate to them in a sense that I do not see the clear image ahead of me, but I can feel that I heading in a right direction.
 I am an accountant and I have a decent job right now, but I constantly asking myself questions - "is it something I want to do for the rest of my life?", "am I happy in what I do?". And the answers I am getting are not completely satisfactory. I am enjoying the college time, because it will take me where I want to be, I just know that, but it is not enough for the vision of my future. I almost feel myself on an interview, when a potential employer asks "where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?".
I have a friend that is 13 years older that I am, and I recently met him when he was briefly visiting US . I first met him when he was occupying a position of a regional manager for one of the top selling gum companies in Ukraine. Apparently he learned English language while studying international economy in Harvard, he created a franchising consulting company and he is trying to expend his business abroad, and at this point he is a self made millionaire. We've met for about 2 hours and we could not eat because our conversation just floated above us,destructing out meal. I shared the story of my life with him and at that time I was very preoccupied with my grades I told him that my goal is to get an A in class. He looked at me and told me that I am smart (which is always nice to hear), but I have to grow up and see beyond my small goals. He told me that I have to create something bigger and try to accomplish it no matter how big it is. At the moment I realized that I simply afraid to dream big. I am scared that my dreams are not going to come true, and that this fear is blocking me from my success. My friend also shared a little trick he does if he wants something to become reality - he creates a detailed scenario in his mind. It can be a day long, a year long or as long as you want. He said that it really works and he is enjoying the process of creation.
 When it comes to my own goals - I am still working on them, but I have some ideas on a back of my mind. The first one is - I want to create a tax consulting company for foreign investors, since I am in a field of accounting that can help me to achieve my idea. I already talking to the same friend of mine which steps we have to make in order to accomplish it. Second dream of mine is to build a house - the step for getting this one done is coming after the first goals is in WIP. There is also a desire to travel the world.
 My goal for everyday life is to keep the vision for all of the above consistent. We can watch a lot of movies and hear a lot of songs that keeps us inspired for a minute and maybe half an hour, but the hardest task is to be inspired for a life time.