My first time working in retail was around November of last year. One of the first places I applied to was Hot Topic. I got my job seasonally, because the store I applied for hired people as young as sixteen when they had enough eighteen year olds on the floor. A lot of people dislike retail, especially during the holiday season, but I didn’t.

I absolutely loved working, even during season. That may be because I didn’t constantly have to hear Christmas music. Hot Topic usually doesn’t play anything except the genres of music I listen to. The only bad experience I had because I worked seasonally was hours; I didn’t get as many as I would have liked to. I was fine with working on Christmas because I don’t celebrate it, but a lot of people don’t like working on major holidays.

Not only was the music great, but my manager and my co-workers were extremely nice. They didn’t get annoyed when I messed transactions up, and they always helped me fix the issue. If I couldn’t reach something (even with the reaching stick; I’m short, I know), They’d get it for me. They were some of the nicest people I had ever met.

Being at work also helped me de-stress, believe it or not. I have siblings who are hard to deal with sometimes, and working helped me get away from them. I was always super happy after work, and it tired me out so much that I slept better. Working always made me happy, it was something I enjoyed doing. I worked with people I liked for a company/brand that I loved. Typically people don’t like their jobs but my experience made me love mine.

If you’re like me and have anxiety and are scared to get a job, especially in retail where you have to talk to people – you should try retail out. It’s scary at first, but I think that it helped me come out of my shell a little. I know it’s easy for me to just say “go out and work in retail,” and for you to think, “it’s not that easy.” I understand that, but as one of my favorite quotes by Benjamin Mee says, “sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage and I promise you something great will come out of it.” I love this quote because it’s not only insanely inspirational, but it’s also true. Try applying, it only takes 20 seconds and it could change your life.