Ariela Martin Photo
Taylor Wiggins eyed the door of the Whalley Avenue Burger King as three familiar teenage girls from her high school entered, laughing. As the girls waited in a long line, their heavy perfume met the stale smell of grease and fries.
Taylor turned to her coworker. “I’m going in the back” she whispered. “Can you take my spot for a few minutes?”
He rolled his eyes; he had heard the request before.
Taylor, 17, is a senior at Career High School. After school she has been mastering the art of fast-food multitasking while occasionally staring down some of her peers, all in pursuit of a dream.
After paying for her personal expenses, she saves her paycheck to put towards higher education. “I want to go to college. My dream is to go to UConn, just like my older brother,” Taylor said while at work one recent day. “I wish I could do the New Haven Promise [the public schools’ tuition-guarantee program] so I wouldn’t have to worry so much about money, but I don’t have the time to volunteer the hours [as part of the program’s community-service requirement].
“Someday I want to be a criminal justice lawyer, but I know it’s going to be a struggle. I’m really tight on money, even as much as I try to save up working here all the time.”
Taylor lives down the block from her Burger King. Her mom, a certified nurse’s aide who works three different jobs “is really proud of how hard I work at school and at my job. I don’t talk about my dad,” she said.
After registering online for several entry-level jobs in June, she heard back first from Burger King. Within a few days of the interview, she began her training. Taylor now works the 4 to 10 p.m. shift behind the counter. After school she comes home briefly to change into her uniform, a red shirt and black pants, before she is out the door and ready to serve customers.
“May I help you?” Taylor tapped her headset, standing by the touch screen, ready to take the latest drive-thru order. She appeared happy to help everyone throughout for her shift, except for teenage girls.
“They stare me down and make me feel bad about my job,” she said. “After a few months working here, I learned it was easier to just ignore them. It makes me sad to think that I am here instead of living my life. But I guess this is my life, so I can’t let them get to me.”
Taylor took orders on the headset, rang up customers at the register, prepared ice cream or French fries and burgers. She did not stop once; she did two tasks at a time, never breaking a sweat. You’ve never seen anyone work as fast and move so fast until you’ve see Taylor behind the counter.
“After a while, you get to know the people and their orders. But every day, there are some really rude people that come in,” she reflected.
In came a middle-aged man in a black leather jacket and baggy jeans. He approached the counter, cutting the line of seven customers.
“Sir, can I help you?” Taylor asked.
“I would like to speak to your manager,” he barked back.
“Sir, can I help you?”
“No. You can’t help me. Get your manager.”
Taylor flagged down the shift manager. “I think he wants to talk to you about the ice cream, again,” she reported.
“Taylor, what did I tell you? Deal with him without me!”
So Taylor did. She stayed calm, kept her tone of voice authoritative. Eventually the man left, and she continued ringing up orders, one more encounter completed on the road to a bigger future.
Ariela Martin is a 9th-grader at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School.