You don't always get it right the first time round. Maybe you are lacking in education, or perspective, or you have some extenuating circumstance preventing you from overall success. I introduced my experience with starting over in a previous essay and I would like to expand on my experience specifically with leaving my first job and finding something new.
There was one weekend that told me I needed change. It was me and one other manager this Saturday, unfortunately the manager that didn't see eye-to-eye with me. Everyone else was out on vacation. Of course, being the restaurant industry, you can get a rush out of the blue. And there I was, desserts station backed up 15+ minutes and I have to step in and help out. Being there was the last place I wanted to be at the moment. I just didn't feel it anymore. But, I got the job done and when it was all said and done, I went home at the end of my shift. I knew I had to try the last thing I hadn't tried yet - quit.
How did I get to that point? This wasn't a job I hated or even mildly disliked. My first job was with local fast-food chain Culver's and that job helped to teach me how to be a man. I started work in the summer of 2020 and I turned that job from something I did here and there to something I could excel at. About three years later, after I turned 18, I interviewed for the shift leader position and would ultimately get it.
Becoming a manager showed me what more this job could be. After learning the job I really found meaning and value in it. I like the process of helping others out. But, I didn't just work this job full-time. I was starting college in September and wanted to give that a shot, too. And for that first semester, I was doing fine at work. That was still the more interesting thing I was doing. In December of that year I applied for a further promotion - Training Coordinator. This role was my first step to becoming an assistant manager and directly tasked me with managing the training and onboarding program.
If shift leader gave me the idea that this job could be a career, training coordinator proved it could be. I liked the work. It gave me meaning and purpose. But, one small wrinkle. I was still going to college. My bosses absolutely supported that and encouraged me to keep going. I finished my freshman year and decided to keep going. I met a lot of incredible people at college and finally found "my place" in the world. Sophomore year would be here sooner, rather than later, and I was still determined to make both lives work. Instead, that fall I would be burning the candle at both ends.
I still enjoyed the work, but about mid-September something broke inside of me. I couldn't keep going anymore. The stress from school and from work and from not having great support at home at this time pushed me to my limit. I knew I was struggling and I tried every trick I thought of. First, I went to my bosses and explained I was struggling and asked for two weeks off. They gave it, but it didn't work. I tried moving down to a part-time work schedule. Didn't really work. I tried not caring as much. Didn't work and probably made it worse.
My last shift there was on a Sunday morning. I was leading the kitchen. Before I walked in the door, I scribbled my two-week notice on a sheet of notebook paper and would place it in the manager's office. I felt good that last shift, scared, but good. I didn't know what exactly I would be getting myself into, but I had faith in myself and I knew I would eventually get back and find my footing. I would leave that day and hear back from my boss the following day that they had my shifts covered. I no longer worked there.
Culver's was a great job and I think it could still be a great job at some point in the future for me, if I so choose. I was forced to choose between committing myself to that job or to my education. This was a choice imposed on myself by myself, no one else gave me this ultimatum. I ultimately chose my education. I liked the people better at college; I felt more separated from my mistakes and I had a new leadership role I was getting into - Student Body President.
My struggle at the end of that job is something that I still ponder, nearly two years later. There were quite a few times I felt dissatisfied in my current job and was about to see if I could go back and make things work. I choose to see this new job, local convenience chain Kwik Trip, through to its end. I am glad for that, too. The culture at Kwik Trip felt remarkably different. The very first thing I noticed was just the people. How they acted and how they treated me. It was very welcoming.
That year - 2024 - had some of my highest highs and lowest lows. In the spring I was excelling at leading the training program at Culver's. In the fall I was struggling. By December I worked somewhere else. Quitting is sometimes necessary in life. You may have a job that is by all accounts great and still be incompatible with how you want to live your life. I do not think leaving my job was a failure anymore. It forced me to figure out who I was and what I wanted to be.
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