So I went to McDonalds for the first time in… I don’t even remember how long. It’s really weird, but it’s almost like stepping back in time. One of those places that hasn’t changed since the time I was a little kid going there with my mom.

It makes me feel nostalgic — yet I get some strangely unpleasant flashbacks as well.

Like the time I saw a girl getting attacked [probably raped] in the parking lot there. I was 7 years old and it was late at night. My mom stopped by the McD’s to pick up something for me to eat on the 40 minute ride home to our house from her work. [She owned a manicurist shop… and I stayed with her there all day.]

I saw a girl pressed up against the wall by a large guy. She was struggling and yelling “no!” and he slapped her across the face. I looked at my mom and she said “don’t look, there’s nothing we can do” so I looked forward, and tried to erase the image out of my mind. To this day, each time I pass that section of the store, I feel a certain amount of sadness.

Another memory that comes to mind is the image of me as a little kid, going in to buy things by myself because my mom was too tired from her 14 hour day to go in and buy some food. It makes me wonder if hard work is ever really worth it. Sure, we had lots of money back then — but it’s not like we had any time to spend it all…

Sometimes the things that are supposed to evoke the most happy of feelings can unintentially evoke sadness as well. Despite the reds and yellows and smiling faces at McD’s… I know that’s one place I where I don’t really want to feel nostalgia at again.