From Fast Food To Slow Gardening

In this fiction short story, I'm going to use a few names from the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane name list. Just about every year, I write a fiction short story, using the names of the current hurricane name list.

https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-predicts-above-normal-2024-atlantic-hurricane-season

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Beryl Leslie Gordon just graduated from high school. She's 18 years old & freshly moved into her own apartment. She works at Arby's as a crew member. Struggling & barely making it. She's choosing not to go to college because she vows to never get into financial debt of any kind. She's confident that she can make it in life without a college degree. 

One day, her older brother, Oscar, was playing Master P's son, Romeo Miller's old song, "Little Star". You know. When they used to call him "Lil' Romeo". The line in the song, "McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, come on girl, do your thing!", caught her ears. That made her more fascinated with the fast food industry. She dreamed to make a career out of it & move up into management. 

As time went on, Beryl would bounce around from 1 fast food restaurant to another, every 6 months. & she even documented her experiences with it because that was what she enjoyed. She loved the free & discounted meals, but unfortunately, her health decline & weight gain were catching up with her. & then she Google searched her symptoms & came across Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" documentary. After that, she started becoming fascinated with watching food & health documentaries on YouTube. She even saw "Fast Food Nation" & "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead", parts 1 & 2. 

After watching a slew of documentaries, she initially felt defeated, but then she became hopeful. She never became a manager, but she enjoyed working at & eating fast food. What a coincidence that McDonald's, Wendy's & Burger King were her last 3 jobs. & in THAT order, too. But before then, she was working at Papa John's. When she quit her Burger King job & announced that she had to because of health issues, she began getting the same treatment that you do, when you leave a cult. The Burger King manager, Valerie, felt like the restaurant lost 1 of their most valuable assets.

Beryl began studying about slow foods, gardening, the Weston A. Price foundation, Nourishing Traditions, Natasha Campbell-McBride & other natural health. She began joining food co-ops & visiting local farmers markets. After gaining more knowledge about better health, Beryl began her own company, called "Beryl's Organic Treasures", selling & making food from her garden. 

A pastor from a local church, named Isaac Tony Williams, was her 1st customer. He started witnessing to her & trying to win her soul to Jesus Christ. He mentioned to her about how the beryl is mentioned in the Bible. He complimented her on her name. He told her that she's doing a great job with her new business, & he also told her how it relates to our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit.  She lost so much weight, & all of her health issues are now GONE! She used her weight loss & Christian testimonies to draw more people to her business, while simultaneously winning souls to Jesus Christ. Pastor Isaac was very supportive & helpful. At times, Beryl had temptations to relapse & eat Jollibee or Jersey Mike's or something like that. But she would replace it with something from her garden. Every morning before starting her day, she would play the song, "I Need Thee Every Hour", as a way to motivate her with praise & worship. She didn't give up.

THE END