The Chapters Gig

Perhaps some of you care about the goings on in my life so I thought I might share a bit about how work is going. To recap, I got a job at Chapters which is a big Canadian book store (I never realized that people might not know what it is since it's huge in Canada but not anywhere else.) for the seasonal time and got kept on to work part time. It's pretty much my dream job since I love reading so I just get to be surrounded by books.

Welcome to Introverts Anonymous

I go through ups and downs in my opinion towards having a job there. I am SO NOT a people person so having to interact with that many people tires me out and approaching them to ask if I can help them even though most of the time they don't want any still scares me. It feels like I'm putting myself out there and then am getting rejected even though it's not me they don't want to talk to, they just want to shop alone. It sucks cause being introverted means you need to be alone to recharge so I need lots of recharging time after spending a couple hours surrounded by people and talking to people and being all bright and cheery even when people don't deserve a bright and cheery me.


But when I start thinking these thoughts, I rationalize that if I had any other job, I would have the same deal with all the people but I wouldn't care about the product. The fact that I am surrounded by books and get to recommend awesome books to people more than compensates for anything. I imagine working at a drugstore or something where there's monotone everyday items and know that I would hate it the whole time since I would feel no connection. There is no better feeling than finding a voracious reader that has read all the mainstream books like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars and Warriors and giving them a bunch of equally amazing books like The True Meaning of Smekday, Graceling, Enclave or Heist Society.

Also, the type of people that shop there are the best kind. I get so many teachers that are selflessly using the Chapters gift cards they got for Christmas to buy more books for the classroom. Once you get past the book convos and learn about people's lives, it really is fun talking to them. I met this one girl that was only 10 but training really hard to be a professional figure skater. Who knows, maybe she'll be in the Olympics one day. One little girl bought a doll and whispered to her mother that she was going to name it after me. Proudest moment of my life right there. (I work in the kids section which is why I have so many anecdotes about children.)

Most of my co-workers are older than me so I'm mostly a fly on the wall to the conversations in the staff room since I know nothing about taxes or cleaning up after my children. However, they are all very nice to me and ask about school all the time. All the managers are so nice and the atmosphere of all the employees is amazing. Especially when I hear the horror stories my friend tells me of her manager who calls her ugly "jokingly" sometimes.

About that "everyone who works there is way older" thing, it makes me super proud of myself to have landed the job because it's a really rare thing for someone my age to do it.

In conclusion, I'm glad this is the job I have to pay my way through university but I am SO GLAD it's not permanent and that I can go get a research job where I can wear jeans and not talk to people for hours. It's perfect for my current situation so I hate to complain just because it's tough sometimes.