Sun, sun, go away, come again another day
By Kathleen Clingwall
Alright, I’ll admit it: I love the rain. In fact, I prefer rain over most weather. There’s something about the pouring rain while being stuck inside the house that is so… enchanting. I love rain during all seasons, especially fall and spring. The smell of the rain when it first hits the pavement just strikes a chord and pulls on my heart strings. It also feels so good to be able to do things around the house like laundry or washing the dishes without feeling bad about staying inside. I also have a tendency to say that I can’t wait for it to rain next so I can lay in bed or sit on the couch and read a good book for a few hours while drinking several cups of tea. But, of course, this rarely ever happens. Usually I’ll settle for some Netflix or a few video games, or if I’m really feelin’ the chilly weather, I’ll make a big pot of soup.
I will always stand by my preference of rain over the sun. Sure, the sun’s nice for a few days when you’re going camping or just feel like going swimming at a lake, but I’ll tell you what — the sun is not so nice when you have to stay inside working for eight hours. Especially since I work at a liquor store, I get some serious FOMO (fear of missing out) when people continuously stream in to buy their 12-packs of vodka sodas or hard iced teas. It just feels so much better knowing that when it’s raining, pretty much everyone will be inside.
Walk a mile in my work boots
By Chandy Dancey
I feel like it should be mandatory life experience to work in customer service (if you have kids, strongly encourage them to try it before they need to make good money). There are some people who have never worked in a retail environment, and it shows — mostly from the lack of empathy and the subtle attitude they bring whenever a corporation does something beyond anyone’s control. What these people will learn within their first month of employment is that you don’t get paid much for the amount of work you do, management almost always sucks, your co-workers are the reason why you don’t quit, you get berated daily by people for things that aren’t your fault, and that it’s not just high school kids working entry level jobs. Plenty of adults with mortgages and kids have retail jobs full-time and long-term (bless their souls). When you work the odd and unpredictable hours of a job like that, you learn that customer service workers deserve kindness, understanding, and a raise.
Hot tips about the elderly
By Carissa Wiens
My new job involves spending a lot of time with seniors. I’ve never known too much about this group of people other than they use walkers to blast around Mill Lake and shouldn’t be on social media. But I’ve learned some really helpful things about the elderly that may help you if you find yourself in their delightful presence.
- They constantly fall. And if you’re not a nurse (which I’m not) then do not attempt to catch them or help them up, which seems to go against everything I was taught about being a decent person. It’s better to call 911 and let someone who is qualified assist them. This is because if you try to help them, you could end up hurting them more.
- They want to talk about what they want to talk about. If you ask them about their childhood but they want to talk about their high achieving daughter, guess how they’ll answer your question? With an in depth biography on their daughter.
- Their teeth (or whatever teeth substitute occupies their mouth) are very soft. This means that they have to dunk their Oreos in milk longer than the ideal length of two seconds. But don’t shame them for this, even though it is insane.
Every day at work I still learn new things about this group of adults, and each new piece of information makes me adore them all the more.
Images: Iryna Presley/The Cascade
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
