That summer job with the sunburn and the sticky counters will become a story you tell for twenty years.

Work that feels like nothing at the time often becomes the material you use for years. The sticky counters, the ridiculous manager, the hours that would not end: none of it is enjoyable at the time, and all of it is dense with the detail that makes a good story. You are collecting something even on the worst shift.

In a job like that, pay attention to the absurd parts rather than only enduring them. Learn the names of the people you work with, since they are half of what you remember. And be decent on the bad days, because those are the shifts that end up in the story.