My favorite question to be asked when I start a new job is: "Is this your first job?"

I am 18, so I understand why this is a perfectly normal question, but I still can't help but laugh each time I hear it. I'm currently going onto five years straight of working, and I am so truly grateful for my experience and the decision I made at such a young age.

Still, I do have a lot of people look at me like I'm criminally insane.

"So, you're telling me you actually started working when you were in middle school?" Yes.

"Did your parents force you?" No.

"Wow, you must be so tired of having a job." Not one bit.

"Must've gotten fired a lot." Not once.

If anything, I love working. It's the perfect escape from the stress of life outside that one building, and you get paid while learning some highly valuable lessons. So far, I have worked for Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, Justice, Cedar Point, Great Wolf Lodge, Texas Roadhouse, the Perkins Restaurant inside Cedar Point (confusing, I know) and finally, Starbucks. No, I have not been fired from any of them, and I also have never quit. I stayed at each job for a pretty decent chunk of time. Also, my parents never forced me to work. It was always encouraged but never required.

Now here's the part that'll knock your socks off: When I was 15 I worked two jobs at the same time! Crazy, right? My bank account sure loves me.

Other than money, work friends are a huge benefit. I have met some of the most incredible people over the past five years, some from countries I had never even heard of before meeting them. It really opened my eyes to the world around me and all of the culture that was out there for me to explore. Work friends have your back at all times and will definitely help you get through an 18-hour shift. Yes, I did just say 18.

Now, back to the money part. Getting a paycheck is like, the coolest thing ever. Receiving my own hard-earned money every week or two really taught me about saving efficiently and becoming independent at a young age. If I wanted something, I didn't have to beg my mom for money anymore, I just bought it. Now, it's helped me so much, especially in college.

Working has also taught me so much about, well, working. I have learned so many important life skills, such as how to provide great customer service, how to schedule and manage my time each day, how to save and spend wisely as I previously mentioned, how to efficiently organize and clean, and in one case, how to perform CPR and save a life.

Many people have told me that I "threw my childhood away" by working at such a young age, but boy, are they wrong. I wouldn't change my experience with having these jobs for the world. I have such a strong resume and work ethic now because of the dedication I put in over the past several years, and working has helped me mature so much. If anything, working greatly enhanced my childhood and gave me so many happy (and weird) memories, and I learned more than what I would have learned if I would have just stuck to the middle school classrooms.