Living in Chicago is quite possibly one of the greatest experiences a person can have. Luckily, for me, I get to spend nine months of the calendar year studying in the big city. So, as you can imagine, when I got offered the opportunity to do research at Loyola over the Summer, I was absolutely ecstatic.

However, the research job was not full-time, which meant I had to get another part-time job to cover some of my living expenses and tuition. So, like most people my age, I hit the computer looking for seasonal employment. Ultimately, I ended up taking a customer service position at the Nordstrom Rack location on Michigan Avenue.

During my first day on the clock, I was assigned to the checkout line. My job was to help guests purchase and exchange their merchandise. I thought, “Easy enough! This can’t be that bad.” Honestly, it wasn’t that bad, until I realized a large majority of my customers were being completely disrespectful.

I didn’t notice it right away because I was fresh-off-the-street, but as time progressed, I came to the conclusion that these people thought that I was incompetent because I work in retail. Some of my customers glared at me when I double-checked their change. Others would fake-talk on their phones to avoid hearing me ask them questions. Worst of all, a few of my customers purposely spoke louder to me because they thought I couldn’t understand English. All of these problems kept recurring and I started to get very irritated and annoyed, so I decided to do a little experiment.

One day, I deliberately singled out a customer who was particularly chatty and worked my personal life into the conversation. She was from the Chicago-area and I noticed when I asked for her zip code, that she lived in Edgewater, the community adjacent to Loyola. I told her that I am a Loyola student studying pre-law and she did a complete double-take. She said something to the extent of, “I thought the majority of the people who worked here were dropouts. What are you doing here?” I know she wasn’t trying to be rude, but it confirmed my theory that there are consumers who think down upon retail workers because they think it’s a job with no direction. (That is also utterly wrong; Administrative promotions are very common in retail.)

Now, I get that there are just some difficult people out there, but seriously? We live in a society that actively fights for equality and promotes social justice. I know that people associate these terms with Women and LGBTQ citizens, but what happened to just being nice to people, I don’t know, for the sake of being good humans? Working in retail doesn’t define me. Being a college student doesn’t define me. Wanting to get an education and doing whatever it takes to get a diploma doesn’t make me an awful person. Treating others the way you would want to be treated applies to everyone and everything, not just the hot-button topics.

So, folks, the moral of the story: Don’t judge a book by its cover. You don’t know everyone’s story, so why write it for them?