While many were spending Spring Break out of town and basking in the sunlight, I made the most of my days unnecessarily panicking over college courses and how I broke I am. While I figured that I could put the former dilemma off to the last minute (like I always do), I decided to do something about the job dilemma by applying to several locations around Cinco Ranch.

After waiting a couple days, I got a call back from Jamba Juice for an interview. Though I was nervous, I didn’t worry too much because it wouldn’t the first interview I’ve done. Fortunately, I ended up being hired shortly after the interview. After completing what seemed to be a mountain of paperwork, the manager lead me through some standard employee protocol.

You know, how the equipment works, uniform requirements, the usual work stuff.

Seemed easy enough.

When my first day of work arrived, I was excited but anxious over what I was going to expect on my first day. From a customer’s perspective, I thought the job looked pretty stressful—having to memorize how to make all the drinks seemed to be a rather daunting task. Overall, I expected my first day to be just watching my coworkers from the corner make drinks and complete orders.

My first day, as it turns out, was nothing of the sort.

The manager quickly showed me where everything was in the store and then transferred me to the shift leader for the rest of my training.

I’m not going to lie—the rapid-fire training was a little intense. She periodically quizzed me on where to find certain items in the store, which I constantly mixed up. Finally, she gave me the rundown on how to work the blending machines.

She showed me which buttons to press for certain smoothies; button one for small smoothies, button two for medium and so on.

At this point I’m pretty sure I had a basic gist of everything. Feeling confident, I decided to make the upcoming order. I quickly measured all the ingredients, put it into a blender and turned it on. I even smiled a little to myself at how quickly I made my first ever smoothie.

However, this is when things started to go south.

My coworker Avery and I were working on the dishes when she briefly glanced at the blenders and froze. I turned around as well.

The blender I put the smoothie in was covered in pink as the blender flung fruit puree everywhere.

I forgot to put the lid on.

After having to do the painstaking and quite embarrassing job of cleaning the area and remaking the smoothie, I had to keep reminding myself to not forget a lid before blending.

For the next two smoothies I made, I also made the smart decision of blending without a lid.

My coworkers were clearly fed up with my incompetence, so they moved me away from the blenders the juicer to help make a fresh juice order.

Now, working the juicer seemed complicated at first, but it was actually pretty simple—chop up the ingredients, put them in and push them down with the juicer cap.

For whatever reason, I really started to get into juicing and how it made the satisfying shink sound, and I got a little carried away.

I was helping my coworker Airianna juice some carrots when all of sudden, the juicer made a fear-inducing shurrrgg sound, almost as if someone threw the juicer down a flight of stairs. Panicking, I quickly turned the juicer off. When I looked into the blender where the juice was going, I noticed a part of the juicer was inside it.

I don’t know why, but the first thing that popped in my head was “Oh my God! I juiced the juicer!”, which made me start chuckling like an idiot.

I know I left my best lasting impression on my coworkers that day.

A little later towards the end of my shift, my coworkers Aijianna and Airianna had a nice surprise for me.

As part of Jamba Juice tradition, every new employee has to take both a wheatgrass and ginger shot on their first day. They excitedly whipped up my shots and handed them to me one by one. Nervous and a tiny bit terrified, I was reluctant to drink them. Meanwhile, my coworkers patiently stared at me, waiting to see my reaction.

The wheatgrass shot wasn’t that bad. It’s kind of like espresso, but if it was made out of grass. Fair enough.

The ginger shot however, burned right through the core of my soul. It delivered a sharp, powerful punch of flavor, followed by a immediate burning sensation that lasted 10 minutes.

After my shift ended, I left feeling a little stupid for the shenanigans that I pulled, but not too discouraged. I figured that the job would get easier after a couple of shifts. Or not.

Well, let’s hope I don’t get fired.