I've been employed since I was 12, whether it was babysitting the boys down the street or slaving away my last three years of high school at the local Buffalo Wild Wings. When I arrived to college, I was dead set on not working another minimum wage job. Not during classes, not after graduation (hopefully, fingers crossed). But the first part of that goal was quickly shot down after a semester of virtually no income while climbing deeper into the black hole of debt that is known as tuition.
So when I hardly made it through a full semester by begging my mother for cash here and there, I applied for work study. When those hours and wages still weren't cutting it (as in, I really wanted a new pair of jeans), I decided to work at my mother's daycare center. I quickly got the hell out of there (but that's a story for another day) and applied to work in retail.
It was the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me.
During my interview, I realized there are people out there just as obsessed with cardigans and as appalled with flare jeans attempting to pry their way back into relevant fashion as I was. When my future manager showed me the discount policy, it was like an angel flew down out of the light and handed me an all inclusive pass. Little did I know it was an all inclusive pass to hand every paycheck back to the company for almost two years as well as continue to pay off my store credit card months after leaving the company.
Everything I picked up, I could see styled with something already in my closet. Everything I handed to a customer, I suddenly wanted. I was fueling an addiction I didn't know I had.
I left the company for multiple reasons and found myself applying to another retail store. Thinking it couldn't be as bad without having a store credit card (and I refuse to open one until I close my previous card), I told myself I wouldn't buy more than a top per month. Sounded reasonable, right? Wrong.
My mother started monitoring my money as I was trying to get some of my loans paid off before graduation, so I really had no choice but to not shop at that point. And boy, I am struggling.
I am having shopping withdrawal. I just want a new pair of sandals. And a new top, but I need a cardigan to go over it.
I swear I'm going to come out of this stronger, but something tells me the moment my mother takes me off lock down, I'm going on a huge shopping spree.