Eliminating a Constant: My Two Weeks Notice

It's not uncommon to pick up a job in high school to start saving funds for college (or to spend, for the less frugal among us). However, it's much less common to keep this job for close to eight years. Schedules change, students move after graduation, or it becomes prudent to start a higher paying job.

I was hired at Shopko about two weeks after I obtained my drivers license and, despite picking up a variety of additional jobs over the years, I stuck with it. I think it's because the store served as a constant in my life. I don't cope well with change, so whenever something in my life felt unstable or uncertain, I knew that at work nothing would be different.

November 2006

For my first year, I basically didn't talk to anyone, was petrified of making pages, and felt devastated when costumers became angry with me. Over the last eight years, a lot has changed. This store got me through graduations, moving (three times), pageants, failed tests, first kisses, heartbreaks, interviews, losing friends, and vacations. I can't pretend I always jumped at the chance to work, but the job's been a big part of my life for a long time. Dozens of photos of me over the years boast a Shopko polo (because I was too lazy to change after work (even if the polo color changed, that never did)).

June 2011

Oct. 2008
Yep, rocking the polo in public

July 2009
Just another Friday Fry-day

June 2008
I was going to throw him in the air

It feels weird that now, as I make a really really big change to start my career, I'm letting go of my favorite constant. I even flirted with the idea of working weekends during the school year. I decided that I might want a day off from time to time, and that it's time to focus on my grown up job though.

So,  here's to leaving locker 125 behind (but maybe taking out the book that's been sitting in it since 2007). And to finding new ways to handle problems without the captive audience of coworkers to vent to. And to finally being able to admit that the customers were NOT right most of the time. To no longer having to worry the nutty buddy slot will fail on the vending machine. Here's to being able to brag that I've never broken a watch face (it doesn't count if someone else broke one after I advised them to use their body weight!). To knowing all the words to a lot of outdated songs that have played on the intercom. To not breaking another nail I taking off hanger size thingies or pulling ad. And to holding on to the memories of all the ridiculous things that have happened at work.

Here's to moving forward and being a teacher instead of an "apparel teammate".