Junior Kathryn Nachtigal stared at the screen inside the Sonic kitchen, waiting for the the Route 44 diet cherry limeade to read “Ready.” Nachtigal grabbed a drink tray and walked out to the car. “Your Road House is ready,” Nachtigal accidentally read. All the employees around her burst into laughter, Nachtigal’s face red with embarrassment.
This was Nachtigal’s first time car hopping at Sonic, a job that started as a joke, but she has grown to love.
“I was stupidly nervous,” Nachtigal said. “I sometimes stumble over my words and I’m not great at talking to new people, so I was worried I was going to mess it up. By the end of the night I got better at it.”
Nachtigal decided to work at Sonic after seeing a TikTok of a girl dancing in rollerblades who said she got them for cheap on Amazon. Set on the rollerblades, Nachtigal forced her sister to go to Target with her to purchase a black and blue pair for $20.
She then spent the next hour trying to learn to rollerblade, even in the five minutes before her Hauberk Zoom call.
“I don’t know why I thought rollerblading would be like a good hobby for me,” Nachtigal said. “But I was like really bored.”
After she told her friends about her new purchase, they jokingly told her she should work at Sonic after they saw a TikTok of a Sonic worker wiping out on rollerblade, saying things like, “Holy crap, this could be you.” Nachtigal applied a few days later and got the job, much to the disbelief of her friends.
“They literally made fun of me so much,” Nachtigal said. “They thought it was so funny. They were like, ‘You are going to last an actual day and you are going to quit.’”
Nachtigal began training a few days after getting the job. She spent the first four days learning how to make slushies, mix ice cream, use the headset and bring orders out to cars.
According to junior Brady Smith, who also works at Sonic and trained Nachtigal, she was afraid of messing up during the process. He had to push her to finally bring out orders, but she learned everything well.
“She picked it up really fast,” Smith said. “Faster than me.”
Working over 20 hours a week, Nachtigal picks up the night shift on two weeknights and works six to seven hours on the weekends. Her night shifts start at the same time that cheer practice ends, so she has to leave cheer early and arrive late to her shift.
But to Nachtigal, balancing the two is worth it. Working at Sonic barely feels like work to her because it allows her to forget about everything going on in her life, from her new cheer routine that she has to learn to her anatomy worksheet.
“It’s honestly just so separate from the rest of my life,” Nachtigal said. “Because I have cheer every day and I swim and I do so much for school. I’m not worried about anything else related to any other part of my life because it’s just such a random thing that it’s so fun.”
For Nachtigal, one of the best parts about working at Sonic has been being surrounded by people from all over town that she never would have met had she not applied.
“It’s just so many people that are so different than me,” Nachtigal said. “They grew up different. They’re from different parts. They’re older than me. They’re younger than me. They all just have different experiences. It’s people I never would have met before but I really like all of them.”
Now that she’s finished training, Nachtigal will be able to use her roller blades while car hopping. While it’s not required, Nachtigal hopes to continue her newfound hobby at her job.
“It’s honestly given me just such a sense of accomplishment that I haven’t really felt before,” Nachtigal said. “I’m actually doing something and like making money for myself rather than just taking my parents money.”