Ramblings of an Unhinged Loner

Hello, hello! Pull up a chair. Let’s have a little chat. My name is Kit. I’m a single (divorced) mom of 2 fantastic daughters and I think the old mid-life crisis has finally caught up to me. I’ve hit a point in my life recently where I need a challenge. I can’t stay in my comfort zone any longer. I’ve been stuck in this same place for too long now.

Let me back it up a little. Well, let me back it up a LOT! I worked a janitorial job for eight years just doing the same old thing without much thought and I was completely numb to it…and I was comfortable with being numb. Then I had to pull my kids from public school to homeschool them which was not at all what I was planning. I HATED school as a kid/teen and I certainly didn’t want to be a teacher. So that was a bit of a shock to awaken me from my numbness.

Then I needed a career change. I was not being paid enough to really survive on ($348 a month) and my ex-husband kept making excuses for why he couldn’t pay child support that month. I didn’t pursue any legal action because, honestly, he scared me. He can keep his money, I just want peace and safety. I tried starting my own sewing business…right before COVID hit. I got real sick of making masks at $8 each. You thought I was going to say that I got really sick from COVID, didn’t you? Actually, I did catch it in 2021 and it was pretty trippy to not be able to smell anything from a jar of minced garlic. All that aside, it wasn’t easy to run a work from home business when everything is shut down, everyone is buying up fabric to make masks, masks are all anyone even wants, and everyone is too afraid to see other people face to face.

I ended up working at a Panera Bread which I loved and I was happy for 2 years. Then life happens and things changed. One very odd customer started stalking me and I didn’t feel safe, a new manager came in who was very inappropriate and corporate started making some very nonsensical changes. I was ready to move on to something else.

I quickly got a job at Staples in the print and marketing department. I enjoyed the work, using the computers and printers, learning new things, being pushed a little further out of my comfort zone daily, and helping the customers with tech issues as I myself was learning more. What I didn’t like was single handedly doing the work of at least 2 people, sometimes 3, working 9-10 hour days, sometimes with no lunch break because we were either really understaffed, or everyone forgot about me in the corner by myself, and corporate constantly on my case that 100% wasn’t enough. Somehow, I had to find more than my all to give to this company that would replace me in a flash if I dropped dead. I was only there for 5 months, but in that time my supervisor quit in the middle of a shift, I wanted to rage quit about 18 times, and when I finally had enough and put in my 2 weeks, I suffered a mild heart attack. I’d also like to mention that another man who had worked my same position at another location died of a heart attack on the job. Yeah, no job is worth risking your health, or life.

Now even though I know Panera Bread would hire me back in a heartbeat (the GM and assistant GM both said as much) and if I’m REALLY desperate, my GM at Staples would also hire me back, even if I just wanted to be a part time cashier, I don’t think I want to look back. I want to move forward into something new. I felt a real challenge at Staples and I liked that. Not the more than full-time with no break, but the walking into areas of little knowledge and learning more.