I Quit My Retail Job(s)

Its been a long time coming, but I know a change is gone come—Sam Cooke

Everyday I woke, my feet hit the floor(of course, first I thank God for a new day). Anyways, I dreadeddddddddddd my mornings. Day after day, same ol’ routine. Get up. Brush teeth. Get dressed. Maybe cook, maybe speed through a drive-thru. Get to work. Manage. Work. 6am arrivals. 6pm departures. Holidays came quicker than the seasons changing. Come home. No energy. Try to decompress. Try to be social. Try to be healthy. Try to work out. Try to have a life. 5am comes. Let’s do this again.

My God, realize how I did all the things I was supposed to do, but only tried at the things I needed to do. We give so much to things and jobs that don’t give us the time to give back to ourselves.Think about it. What energy did you give at work today? Don’t answer it because I know you gave it your all(your check requires it). But, you didn’t go home and give your ALL to YOU. You did things, as my parents would say, Half-ass. I’m pretty sure you did. You worked out quickly to get home quicker. You threw something in the microwave rather then cook and take your time with it. You threw that pile of laundry that is therapeutic to fold to some on the bed till the weekend. You scrolled through social media. You half-assed your way through your home life to be well rested for you “work life”. I know. I’m right.

Retail did this to me. In no way am I shaming anyone who loves this career field. To each his own. I just want to use my story as a testimony. You are given one you. Since the week after I graduated college in 2014, I gave my all to that internship, to get that job, to get that check. But long after I realized I was not giving back to me. That is so important. YOU are so important. No job should tell you what holidays you can have off. Tell you how much time away is appropriate. Tell you that a 12-10 shift is a normal shift. That a 2 hour commute is okay for you. That a 30 minute lunch and a 10 hour shift is “normal”. I didn’t realize this until 5 years later. Then one morning, I woke up and decided I was done with it. My passion isn’t a “have a good day”, to each customer in the store. Catering to a crowd of greed….(I felt that).

What drives me is being able to tell a story. Write a testimony that someone can connect to. Create a blog that someone can refer back to in need of advice or some motivation. Create DIY videos for those who don’t know how to get their creative juices flowing. I want to be a voice. And THAT is why I quit retail. I had no voice. It no longer fueled me. In all honesty, it slowed me down. I put off those blogs, those writing workshops, those internships, networking events, seminars. I put that all aside for my everyday 10 hr shift that did nothing for me but become a continuing cycle of my everyday life that became the “norm”.

Now imagine this, (in this order). Wake up. Prayer. Pace. Fuel. Work that is (PASSION). Pace. Energy. Energy. ENERGY. Home. Pace. Fuel. Energy. Therapy. Thank God I am ABLE do this again.

—Yours Purely