Fast Food Nation (w4)

     There is no denying that America runs off of fast food.When I was younger my parents mostly made dinner so I really didn't start having the luxury of fast food until I started to drive and have a job. I don't really have a childhood memory of fast food (besides happy meals here and there from McDonald's). When I got my own car I was seventeen years old and by that point my parents didn't care about what I ate anymore. Oh and did I eat it, a lot of it.
     First off, I started working at Dairy Queen when I was a sophomore in High School. The rule there was that we couldn't have food for free, and we had a slight discount of ten percent. This rule was broken constantly. Everyone I worked with made food for free and we would eat on the clock all the time. I know that this sounds bad but the only person that cared was the owner and he was barely there. Anyways, I ate everything and I mean everything. I worked there for almost four years and tried new combinations of food all the time. What I ate most of though, was the ice cream of course. For some reason the soft serve never got old.
     In addition to being addicted to Dairy Queen food, I also loved to drive around and go to every the drive thru in town . Like in every city in America, strips of fast food places surrounded us. This burned a huge hole in my pocket. Even though I was buying dollar tacos from Taco Bell and dollar sweet teas from McDonald's, it adds up quick when your buying it about every day. Luckily, I am mostly over my fast food stage due to the fact that it really isn't cheap.I am really looking forward to cooking a lot food in my apartment next year just because fast food does get old.
     I feel like America runs on fast food mostly because it does surround us so much and it is much more convenient to spend a dollar on a burger versus grilling out. It is also fast, Americans are both busy and lazy people. We have people who rush to work every morning, so they are picking up McDonald's for breakfast. There are also just plain lazy people who can't or won't cook to save their life.
     Even though I haven't traveled to a different country, my friend is from Beijing and she notices a big difference in food culture. China has fast food of course, but they don't rely on it as much as Americans do. She says that in her culture, it is more important to sit down with family and friends eating authentic food than anything else. I feel like fast food in America takes some of that away because it is so prevalent and convenient for us that we forget the true value of food. Of course we need food, but we should also take time to slow down our lives a bit and share food in a more traditional way with family and friends.