Lost and found at McDonald's

I was hungry.  I knew it would take me at least an hour to put together any decent food at home--after all, I had already done the easy egg route and, as tasty as it was and as arty as it looked, I didn't want to have it all over again.

So, yes, Virginia, every once in a while I do the unthinkable.
The unimaginable.
The unforgivable.

I drove up to the golden arches.
With a coupon for free fries!

At the register was a pretty young girl, perhaps a high school junior. With a tight smile.  She was not at ease.  Was she new at her job, I wondered.  No small talk with her than.

There was no other customer as I waited for my to-go to be assembled.  The young girl at the register stood cemented without any noticeable movement. She didn't partake in the conversations in which the others were engaged--at least two of them, guys, seemed to be high school students.

She saw me watching all of them, including her. She gave me that same tight, awkward smile.

One of the customers, who seemed to be all done with her meal, was a teenager as well.  She asked one of the boys who was working, "you graduating this year?"

He was.

The girl at the register didn't flinch. I could not but wonder why she stood so aloof.  Perhaps not very social?

Meanwhile, the young fellow continued with his high school stories.  I turned my attention to him.

Life is one huge live improv theatre.  I never know which actor would come up with the best lines at any given moment and, therefore, have to constantly shift my attention from one actor to another.

"So, are you going to college after you graduate" the customer girl asked him.

My curiosity reached an even higher level.

"No .... I am taking the year off ... to find myself" he said, while doing the air quotes around find myself.

Little does he know that we never find ourselves in a year. If we are lucky, we might manage to do it before we die, which is a tad too late, to put it mildly. Finding ourselves is always a work in progress. To find oneself can, in fact, be even more of a challenge if all we do is try to find oneself.  We do the best we can in the here and in the now.

I could have lectured him a great deal about the old Hindu philosophical quest of "who am I?"  That question of finding oneself has dogged one too many Hindus--the real and the pretentious alike.

But I did not.

When even the youth who pay tuition and fees do not have the patience to listen to me in the classroom, I know fully well that life is better lived with the mouth shut, like what the pretty young girl at the register was doing--maybe she is well on her way to find herself.

I came home with the food from McDonald's.

It sucked.

I should have known better!  But then, I am yet to find myself.