I worked my dead-end grocery store job for three and a half years. That’s right baby, years. I worked my way up the food chain starting as a cashier and ending up as a front-end manager. I even was a florist. There was never really a point where I got up in the morning excited about work. Except, maybe when I knew my favorite co-workers were working too, and we could be miserable together. 

I hated cashiering with a passion. It was so boring and monotonous and was only made worse by the fact that customers can be so creepy and rude. The amount of harassment I received was just ridiculous. I have a very distinct memory of being yelled at by an old woman over pennies’ worth of apples. It doesn’t sound that bad, but it was truly one of the worst customer experiences I had.

There were some good experiences even with the lack of communication between staff members and the laziness. On a side note, shout out to the GSR team last winter. You know who you are. I love y’all. 

Something changed; I realized this last semester that I had learned all I intended to learn from my time there. After a huge error was made by the employees above me, I realized how little they valued what I brought to the team as an employee. I had management experience, and that was my goal and I completed it. I am not a business student, I am a student of social work and I wanted my resume to reflect that. 

So, I took a leap of faith and started looking for jobs. I started looking when I came back from Alaska in August, and by Halloween of last year, I had my first day of orientation at my new job. 

It took me roughly a month to complete the onboarding process and by November I was doing my first observations with clients and learning how to do my job in practice instead of theory. 

I am not going to say where I work now in this article because that feels weird and taboo. Additionally, I work in a medical setting and I am now bound by HIPPA. I really don’t want to get fired, because I love my new job. I am studying to be an RBT or registered behavior technician. Here’s what I will say though, when I come home from work, I am looking forward to my next shifts. My roommate told me the other day that I come home happier, complain less, and overall enjoy the work I am doing. 

Not only do I get to work with kids, which I love, but I also get to put skills from my education and I use them to benefit and serve others. 

Here’s what eats me up, I could have been doing this job for the last two and a half years. I could have been growing these skills all this time, but I spent it at a job that I knew I wouldn’t be doing forever and that I didn’t like. I didn’t even know how much I didn’t like it until I didn’t have to work there anymore. I don’t even go grocery shopping there anymore despite the fact that I am four minutes away. 

I stayed because I was loyal to my co-workers, and I felt obligated to stay so they didn’t have to do that miserable work alone. I know everything happens for a reason, but I wish I could have known that work could be exciting and fulfilling before now. 

Honestly, I thought when people said ‘If you love your job, you will never work a day in your life’ that was total bull. However, quitting my old job and starting this new one realize maybe there is some merit to the silly saying. 

So my advice to you is, to quit your job. If you hate it, there have never been more opportunities out there to find something new. I make just as much at my current job — and likely will make more once I pass my exam — than I did at my last job. And to sweeten the deal, I have so much less stress and anxiety surrounding work. 

If you don’t like the life you are living and the job that you’re working, that’s okay because you can change it. As the saying goes, ‘don’t slave away for a company that would have your job posted before your obituary.’