Seeking advice for work during undergrad

Hello all! This is my first post on here. As you can see from the title I’m looking for some advice on employment whilst I’m working through my undergrad. I currently work retail at a big box home center bc I figure it’s the closest I can get to experience relevant to my field (mechanical engineering major) and still have something flexible with my changing semester schedule. But quite frankly, I’m getting really burned out of retail. I really want to find something different but move closer to the field. I know internships would be perfect, I have a few ways to go to be considered for those since most of my college credit is core classes/basics (I have maybe 2-3 semesters before Internships even become a possibility) I am also finding that I’ll only be able to take around 2/3 classes per semester since the Mechanical Engineering program at my university is fairly new and there isn’t enough faculty to offer every class every semester. Does anyone have any recommendations or similar experiences that can share? It would be much appreciated.

Other pieces on info: I have been in university since Fall of 2018, working the whole time, and of course COVID set me back some. My girlfriend and parents say I should just stick with retail until internships become a viable possibility. I’m started to think they’re right but I just want to get advice from where ever I can.