I haven’t posted here in a while. I’ve been out living my best life, working for a living, now with two jobs. 

One of my jobs is in a store that sells women’s intimate wear. I’ve been there for a month now, and I love it. My coworkers are amazing, my boss is fantastic, and for the most part, my customers are great too. 

But this morning, my boss told me about a customer review that had been posted. This customer couldn’t believe the store would have “one of those people” working there. It included the phrase, “I don’t have anything against those people, but…” 

You know how those sentences go. What comes after the “but” negates everything before it. 

My manager informed me that she had talked to our head office and had the review removed. She said that it was basically the same as someone posting a racist review, or any other form of bigotry. 

She didn’t have to tell me about it. Some managers would have kept it quiet with the rationalization being that they wouldn’t want me to be upset about an isolated negative comment. But I appreciate that she told me. It’s important to know that the company has my back. I already knew that everyone in the store would be behind me if I had a negative encounter in the store, but it’s important that the company as a whole does as well. They have a comprehensive DEI policy, and the best DEI training module I’ve seen yet, but this incident shows that they stand behind their policy. 

But the incident made me think. There are two ways you can go after receiving negative feedback. Some people would tend to make themselves smaller, to retreat so as not to risk offending someone else. But I kept my personality small for far too many years, so I can only go in the opposite direction. 

I have a big personality, and one of my foremost goals is to use my personality to help lift other people up. (Not necessarily in the physical sense, although as several of my friends know, I can certainly do that.) I feel happy when the people around me are happy, and it gives me great joy to be part of their happiness. 

So I’m definitely not going to shink because someone occasionally doesn’t understand who I am. I’m someone who makes a positive difference in people’s lives. I’m someone my friends are happy to see. I’m proud of who I am, and I’m going to continue being the person I’ve always wanted to be.