People say that you always remember your first job, and I will definitely always remember mine. My first job was at Five Below working as a Sales Associate. At the time, I wasn't even looking for a job, I just stumbled upon it. I had the job for barely a month before I was fired. The thing I'll probably always regret is not having received an employee t-shirt that actually fit me, and wasn't two or three sizes too big.  

In all honesty, I feel like I was fired for three, mostly stupid, reasons. There were obstacles and difficulties I couldn't control. At the risk of sounding like a petulant child, it's just not fair. I didn't plan on my bus running late, thus making me late for work. Just like I didn't plan on my phone refusing to send or receive text messages and calls, I mean seriously most of the time they acted surprised when you did call in. While I am upset over losing my job, in all honesty I never wanted a job anyway. The only reason I even filled out an application was because my mother was constantly pestering me about getting a job.  

I was at the Garfield Park Lending Library just browsing the shelves looking for something good to read. Then, having exhausted the search of the small collection, I logged onto one of the public computers to check Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and play games. I was looking for a toy store in the general area of the library, when suddenly I just had this strange notion to go to Five Below's website. Once there I'm just, you know, scrolling through the webpage until I get to the bottom. At the bottom it has a link to their online applications. I completed the application, and chose the closest Five Below location, the one of Kirkwood Highway, to my house. I go back to playing games online, and 30 minutes later I get a call from the Kirkwood Highway location manager, Amanda, asking me to come in for an interview. We set up a time and date for my interview, and shortly thereafter I am hired and have to fill out a bunch of really boring, but legally important papers and working permits. They didn't have an employee t-shirt in my size, so I'm forced to tie the excess shirt up with a hair tie for the remainder of my tenure as a Sales Associate at Five Below.

On the Saturday that I was fired, my entire family was present in the store looking at all the interesting merchandise. The manager-on-the-floor, Stacey, came up to me a couple minutes after I had punched in and asked me to follow her to the office in the back. She had me complete a racial survey, handed me my severance check and told me that due to my discrepancies, I was being terminated and no longer employed by Five Below. As I completed the survey I told her that I had been having problems with my cell phone, and then I took my check and left without another word.