Losing my job in December :(

So yeah...my store has to downsize to a smaller space. They don't really know with any clarity what they are going to do. It’s all pretty much happening all at once. Their lease was up; the economy and the construction in front of the mall hit them like a freight train and the competition pretty much killed them.

They don’t know where they’re going yet but they are meeting with a realtor on Monday. However, they do know that they are going to have to liquidate entire sections from the store and let go of all of their employees. 

The mall location will close either in the middle or the end of December. The closing date will depend on how long it takes them to pack everything their going to keep and move to their new space. Everything they’re not keeping will go up for auction; fixtures, merchandise, etc….

I, like them, am still reeling from the whole thing. Even though I have spent a considerable amount of time complaining about my job, I still find the idea of losing it staggering.  I have never been very good with change being forced upon me.  The only way that I deal with change well is when it is my idea or if I know it’s coming. 

Last spring when Brett was doing his student teaching and he was anticipating getting a job the following school year, mentally I was completely prepared to do whatever I needed to do for that. I was ready for this huge change to our lives. I was ready to move wherever we needed to go for his job, and I was thinking about things I could do to keep me busy if in the small chance that we moved to a very small isolated town.

But when that didn’t happen, it was like the worst thing that could have occurred.  I’ve been in a whirlwind of disappointed frustration since then, and it wasn’t until I’d say about a week or so ago that the dust was finally beginning to settle.

Now this happens.

In all honesty I kind of knew that something like this was going to happen. The store has been in a steady decline almost the entire time that I’ve worked there and the mall itself has been dying a very slow, lingering and painful death. There are more empty spaces than occupied ones, and to lose retailers like Dillard’s and now Party Palace, it is tantamount to destruction. The combination of rent, utilities, and the economy in Pocatello has driven many businesses in the mall out of business.

But now is the time to look forward instead of back. I don’t know where life will lead me next. But I hope that whatever I do next will be to the betterment of myself and others. So here’s to looking at a glass half full.