Humility

Everyone always has a beautiful painting of their reality, which they desire to show off, but my reality isn’t so pretty. I’ve suffered through disadvantages in my life and have been brought up underneath double standards and changing conditions resulting in a few things I can honestly hope in. I believe in treating others how you want to be treated. I work retail and it’s tremendously important to be calm and respectful. For example, this is one evening when I was closing at work, Game Stop, with my co-worker, Perry, and this woman, whom was asking questions to obtain games for her child.

After having answered multiple questions and concerns and picked out the best looking pre-owned PSP we had in stock, Perry started her transaction. Following company standards he began the list of questions we are required to ask: “Would you like to add a product replacement plan to this,” “Is there anything you would like to pre-order,” and the most frequent, “Would you like to get a PowerUp Rewards card for only x amount more today?” This is where it became complicated; the woman decided she wanted the card, so Perry explained the benefits to her while I continued with my busy work, filing software. He explained it would be $6 more to purchase it, but the only thing she saw was it cost $14.99, so he explained by getting it she saved $9, something she didn’t understand. She then began to act rude and vulgar, so I stepped in and explained it slowly. She began to curse and accused me of treating her like a child.

I apologized, taking the blame and that I wasn’t explaining it correctly and asked her if there was any way I better clarify. She continued to insult me so I apologized again and said that it was my fault for the mistakes in the transaction. I explained I had been busy and I was very sorry for the complications, and then turned to my mountain of games I storing previously. She tried to apologize before her departure, saying she had been a bitch and that it wasn’t nice of her, I told her that it wasn’t her fault and that she was right to feel confused and upset. This resulted in her gaining this confused, guilt stricken look as she departed the store and we then closed, only staying open to help her.

I’ve learned that in the end, if I can stay calm and promote myself as a kind person who is apologetic for the problem, the end result is rewarding, having a person realize what they did was hurtful is a step towards a better tomorrow. I hadn’t changed the world, but I changed the way this one woman was going to act in my store, creating me and my customers a better environment. Treating people the way you want to be treated, reminds people that we are human and crave for humanity.