Fashion Forward

During the Christmas season following my graduation from college (the first degree) I got a job at a store called Torrid, the plus size sister store to Hot Topic. A friend of mine had already started as holiday help, and had suggested that it wasn't a bad place to make a few bucks. As with other retail and food service establishments in the past, they wanted to make me part of the management within a month or so. I accepted, but I never realized what I would, in the end, really gain from this experience. The girls I worked with were all beyond full figured (the sizes went from 12 to 24, with most of the staff and customers leaning towards the larger end of things) and so I became, as one manager described me, the "anorexic one". Some of the girls who would come in wouldn't want my help since, at a good size 12/14 I was "skinny". Never before in my entire life had anyone looked at me, to my knowledge, and wanted to look like me. They would have me try on new clothes because I may not have a perfect model 34-26-34 or whatever it's supposed to be, but I'm in proportion, and curvy, and, as they taught me, gorgeous just the way I am. For the first time in my life, I had self esteem. We had to be "fashion forward" at all times, hair, makeup, nails, stylish clothing. I looked good everywhere I went because I was either coming from or going to work. While I never thought of myself as the retail or do-yourself-up type, I felt really good all the time. And I've carried that with me. I kid that it's why I can't lose weight, that i think I'm okay the way I am, though I know another 20lbs would make me really hot stuff. ;) So, today I am grateful for the self esteem I hold so dear that's just been growing ever since.




What are you grateful for?


~Jen