Just One Of Those Days

And by just one of those days, you know what I mean. Not a classic bad day where a series of incidents make the day a huge mess, but a day where little things happen that make you question everything. Everyone can have a bad day, but one of those days usually happen when you are in a particularly stressful time in your life. Like for me, little things happened today that got me sad about my current job situation and all day I couldn't shake it. What I need to do is focus on these feelings and use them as motivation instead of getting discouraged.

Today was a gorgeous, warm day. It felt like Spring was here. People were wearing shorts and sundresses trying to soak in as much sun as they could. What was I doing you ask? Working. I was inside chatting with customers about the beautiful weather I was not experiencing. But that's just me whining in retrospect. At the time this wasn't the reason today was just one of those days.

As I got into work, a couple of my co-workers stopped me to say "I didn't know you were older than/same age(depending on the employee) as us?" I was like  "Eh yea I'm 23." One of the girls said she was surprised and thought I was much younger. I didn't know how I was supposed to react to this. I was thrown off guard. For some reason I started to tell the long story of how I graduated college and had internships, but nothing lead to a job. But why did I feel like I had to justify myself?  Is it my own insecurity that was bothered by it? Should I have taken it as a complement or an insult that they thought I was younger? Am I once again just overthinking everything? After I walked away, I felt confused and embarrassed. I was embarrassed that I felt like I had to justify myself, but also that I came off snobby. "Oh I don't want to work HERE. I'm a college graduate." So my shift started off with me overthinking the encounter and feeling embarrassed/annoyed/depressed.  But oh it didn't end there.

Later an older customer was chatting with me and she asked how old I was. The following conversation followed:

(This woman had an accent. I am not sure of its origin. To be as true to reality as possible when you read her lines, read them with a British accent. In movies, a character will always have a British accent no matter where they are supposed to be from. If they are not American, they have a British accent.)

Old Lady with the Indeterminable Foreign Accent- "What are you 19?"

Me-"Oh no, I'm 23."

Old Lady with the Indeterminable Foreign Accent-"Oh, I'm sorry. You look so young! You get that a lot, no?"

Me- "No actually because of my height I usually don't. It must be the uniform. *Insert fake polite laugh*

(I would like to add that I am not one of those people who look like a child. Actually most of my life because of my height, I usually was thought to be older. So hearing that I looked younger was sort of odd. It was probably the uniform. And why would a college graduate be working at a grocery store? That's the sort of thing I told myself to fuel my sadness.)

Basically the old lady with the indeterminable foreign accent shoved the knife even deeper into my open wound. Because apparently the first incident wasn't enough! And once that mood was set I just felt like a crappy person the rest of the day. On a positive note, I did find a couple positions to apply to that look like great opportunities. So keeping my faith alive. Today did not kill it. It was just one of those days!

I should probably end this blog on a positive note so you don't think I should seek out professional help.  While I was checking a customer out, I noticed that three police officers were in the front office. After asking the other cashiers what was going on, I discovered that someone was caught stealing boxes of magnum condoms. Apparently they stole enough condoms, to warrant an arrest, which I guess depends on the cash value of the item being stolen. My first thought was that it was probably a younger boy, but it turned out to be a college age boy. Though it is not confirmed, we think it might have been a frat prank or initiation. Unfortunately for him, he failed. After being questioned in the office by the police, he was escorted out handcuffed! Pretty epic. Safe sex is important everyone, but it does not excuse shop lifting. A life lesson for us all.