Some places just are not very much fun to visit. It doesn't matter when you go, or what your purpose is for going, because either way, you are surely in for an incredibly miserable time. The DMV, or MVD as it is called in some places, is definitely one of these entirely awful places to visit. It may, in fact, be one of the most miserable places of all.

The DMV, of course, is the Department of Motor Vehicles, and it is essentially the place that one must visit for things like new driver licenses, changes of vehicle ownership, vehicle registration renewal, and so on. Thankfully, some of these things can now be completed online, making it so that it is not always absolutely necessary to physically visit the DMV. Oh, thank goodness.

Why, you may ask, is the DMV such an incredibly miserable place? Well, I think it's a combination of things. The employees often look like they hate their jobs and don't want to be there. This isn't always true, and I have actually met some wonderful DMV employees who are incredibly friendly and helpful, but I have also encountered some who are rude and disrespectful, so it just depends.

Still, DMV employees don't exactly have to provide exceptional customer service like employees do at places like hotels or restaurants. If you receive bad customer service at a restaurant or hotel, you can simply not return there and try a different one next time. But, if you receive bad customer service at the DMV, you don't exactly have many alternatives for where you could go instead the next time. What would you do? Try the other DMV across town next time you have to get something done involving your car? I guess that you could, but you probably won't.

Why else is the DMV so terrible? Well, the lines always seem incredibly long, no matter what day of the week or time of the day that you go. You may just need to go in there for something incredibly simple, yet you still could very well end up waiting for over an hour just to get it done, a very painful process indeed. When you wait in line for a ride at an amusement park or something like that, at least you have the ride itself to look forward to, something to make waiting in line worth it. At the DMV, all you get after waiting in line is the chance to talk to a disgruntled DMV employee. Oh, what a joy.

Everything just moves so slowly there. After all, there is a reason that the movie Zootopia chose to characterize the DMV using only sloths.

Also, there is really no way to distract your mind while waiting in line at the DMV. Last time I went, there wasn't even a waiting area where you could sit. Nope, everyone was just sitting around and waiting, looking more and more upset by the second. The walls and the floor usually have no color, so the place basically looks like a prison. I'm sure being in prison is tough, but at least prisoners don't have to wait in line at the DMV.

However, I suppose I should acknowledge the fact that the DMV does provide necessary services for everyone who drives a car. I guess that maybe it is a special place, in a sense. I mean, it's the place where teenagers experience their first taste of freedom through a driver license and the place where people who have just turned 21 go to obtain a new ID that will allow them to legally buy alcohol. I guess that it does provide happiness for some people.

But it's also an incredibly miserable place with very long lines.