Working is hard. Working as a full-time student is harder. But working in the service industry while in college is a special kind of interesting. While college is supposed to be your transition into the real world, there's nothing like being yelled at by customers to give you a nice dose of reality. I've been working at CVS for a year and a half now, and these are the 5 things working with the public has taught me that college has yet to.

1. Responsibility

I've always considered myself a fairly responsible person, especially as a freshman. I didn't work my first year in college, so this delusion stuck around for a little while. Little freshman me thought I was responsible given that I got my work done (mostly on time), got myself in and out of bed at reasonable hours (some of the time) and managed not to skip too many classes.

Ha! That illusion of responsibility has since been destroyed since I started working. I realized very quickly that adding in work creates a delicate balance with school. If I don't get my s*!@ done all of the time and on time now, everything just collapses on itself in a vicious cycle of regret and shame.

2. Empathy

Working in a pharmacy has completely changed my perspective on the feelings of others in a big way. I'm ashamed to admit that through my first year of college my regard for others was virtually non-existent. I never went out of my way to hurt someone or make them uncomfortable, but if some one didn't show up for class or failed a test or forgot their homework, my automatic thought was "sucks to be them."

I've now come to realize that life sometimes deals out less than ideal circumstances that are out of the control of anyone. Talking to the men and women that come into work, I've also come to believe that the worst things can happen to the sweetest people, and while I can't change that, I can at least be empathetic and treat everyone with the kindness they deserve.

3. Prioritizing

When you have four people who want flu shots, five people at pick up, and twelve prescriptions that have to go out in the next thirty minutes, prioritizing suddenly becomes a necessity. Working in the service industry has been a trial-by-fire crash course in how to prioritize.

Prioritization was never an issue before I started working when I just had a few assignments due each week. Now it's become another necessity when attempting to figure out a school/work balance.

4. Multitasking

Multitasking goes hand in hand prioritizing at this point. I couldn't multitask to save my life my freshman year. If I started one assignment or a book or just something for fun, I couldn't put it down until I was finished with it. Now balancing different tasks at the same time has also become a necessity. If I had to finish a task before I moved onto the next one now, I'd have a lot of people angry with me and I'd never get all my assignments done.

5. Patience, Patience, PATIENCE!

Patience has been the biggest thing I've learned while working in a pharmacy. I had zero patience when I started college, and I was completely okay with it. I'd get worked up sitting in traffic, in the drive-thru, and waiting in line at the store. I'd get impatient waiting for grades back, with project partners, and when my computer was a little slower than usual.

Working with the public squashed that quick! This is the biggest thing I've learned that school had no part in teaching me and the most important life lesson. After all, I'll be back on the other side of the register some day, and while a legion of college students will have to learn these lessons themeselves in the future, I'd rather not be the inconsiderant customer they learn it from .