Nothing ICE Screams "Summer" more than working in a local ice cream shop where you spend your days serving customers one of the sweetest creations on Earth. The job and the joy you bring to people of all ages when you hand them their delicious treats never gets old. No matter what ice cream shop you work at, there’s definitely some recurring situations and experiences that can relate to any person who works in an ice cream shop.

1. ICE CREAM (duh).

You always get to sample and take home the newest ice cream flavors after work. Ice cream has just become a main staple in your diet by this point.

2. Sprinkles EVERYWHERE.

You start the day with a seemingly clean floor but as time goes on, the amount of “jimmies” you see “sprinkled” about slowly increases. Soon enough, there are sprinkles on the tables, on the floor, in the sink, on your shirt, in your pockets and just about everywhere else besides the actual ice cream.

3. It’s always so cold.

The ice cream you serve is most likely stored in freezers where you work, but for some reason, the whole shop eventually just feels like one big walk-in freezer, which isn’t a bad thing when you’re trying to combat the summer heat.

4. Slippery whipped cream.

You have perfected the art of making sundaes and the one you just made is looking particularly ravishing. You pull out the whip cream bottle, give it a vigorous shaking, and place the finishing touches. Everything looks great and you’re about to put the cherry on top, most literally, when the whip cream takes a turn for the worst and starts to slip right down the sundae like lava on a volcano.

5. Shift times.

Your shift either goes really really slow or really really fast, there’s really no in between.

6. Milkshakes.

Too much milk or too much ice cream? You’re trying to make the perfect shake but somehow every time it’s either too thick or too thin. Practice makes perfect I guess!

7. Lopsided cones.

A lot of people don’t realize how frustrating swirling soft ice cream on a cone actually is. It’s a true sport of focus, balance, and the proportions. If you try to swirl the cone thin from the bottom and thicker on the top, chances are you’ll have what I call I lopsided cone. And putting toppings on a lopsided cone? Forget it!

8. Handing out orders.

It’s already nerve-wracking enough to try to hand out a big order of ice cream to a whole group of people, but it’s even worse when the person waiting for the order forgets what they ordered and you have an awkward staring contest with them until they realize that you’re holding their ice cream.

9. The regulars.

There’s always the same cheery people that come to the shop a couple times a week and by now you don’t even have to guess what they want because you already know their order by heart. It’s actually quite surprising to you when they don’t order their “usual” and mix it up a little bit.

10. Arm workout.

Scooping hard ice cream is no joke. You need some serious muscles to do it all day and if your don’t have them, eventually you will. So why would you need to go to the gym in the summer when you’re already getting an arm workout (even though it’s usually only on one arm).

11. Cracking waffle cones.

Waffle cones taste great and are amazing with any type of ice cream but with a flavor and crunchiness that good, there’s always a catch. Unfortunately waffle cones are also very fragile (like my self esteem) and easily break when applying any type of pressure, per say, with a scoop of hard ice cream.

12. Lots of hard work.

People think that working at an ice cream shop is all fun and games and while there is a certain pleasure that comes from serving ice cream, there’s also a lot of preparation and planning that goes on behind the scenes to make sure the shop is up and running. Some of these things include making the toppings, stocking the cups, cleaning the scoopers, cleaning all the machines, etc. It’s especially time consuming if a shop makes all of their ice cream homemade, so next time you’re licking that delicious ice cream cone, just remember all the hard work the owners and workers put in to make sure that you can have variety every time you visit.