Thank you

This short piece is dedicated to my anonymous donor.

Have you ever had that day when you are tired, so frickin tired of people in general? I work in retail and I just moved to Arlington, TX. I just start a new job at a certain store for plus sized junior females in The Parks mall on Cooper St. I had forgotten how very draining working retail is emotionally as well as physically. When you greet some of the customers, they don't even acknowledge that you even opened your mouth. Its like you are something invisible until they need you to do something for them, to serve them.

Its hard when some customers talk about you like you are a failed product, like a broken robot servant. Let me just say that it is emotionally painful to keep your mouth shut and be professional when all you want to do is open your mouth and blast them about how ignorant they are being. But, you have to keep your job because you need that paycheck and in order to keep your job, you gotta keep your mouth shut and take that crap.

Its hard when you are tired and your feet hurt like hell from standing on three inch heels for three hours or more. You want to sit down and take your feet out of your lovely torture devices and just wriggle your toes on the delightful cold tile floor. Let me just say that it is the most unbelievably enjoyable sensation. I know. I just did it today about six hours ago. My feet are still aching but its better now that I'm actually sitting down.

And yet, when I think about certain things, it all makes the retail line of work worth it. I believe I will list them out and I will elaborate on them because just naming them is not enough to fully explain how precious those things are.

The first is friendship or rather the sisterhood that forms between the coworkers. Its like having family there to help you out when you don't know where something is or when you are floundering for help with a customer who is not even sure of when they want to buy. They are there when you are tired and you feel so much better when they ask you if you're okay.

Smiles are not a small, unimportant thing. People actually share something when they smile with each other. I don't know the word to describe it. What word sums up the emotion when you share empathy, happiness, a certain respect for the other person for being a human? I don't know it but a smile is a smile and a smile means so much more than a word. These smiles are from customers who actually look at you in the eyes and see you.

The happiness when a customer looks in the mirror and sees themselves as something beautiful. Just today, I encountered something that made me realize how hard women are on their own bodies. This woman comes in for a shirt to wear out a party. I ask her if she needs help and she tells me that she needs something but she doesn't know what. She tells me that she is fat. Fat. I've seen women twice as big as her but they had a hundred times more confidence than her. I realized that no matter what I recommended, she would not be happy because she was not happy with her own self.

There is one last thing that I want to talk about and that's what inspired this little whatever-the-hell-it-is. Lol. I got home tired and I have a problem that has weighed me down for weeks and is still weighing me down but I feel so much better because a person decided to give me a random gift without wanting even to have themselves known. I haven't realized until now how a simple random act of kindness can affect the recipient. I now realize that anything, even a smile can lift up the spirit and heart of someone who is tired and troubled.

To the person who put a smile in my heart,

Thank you for doing what you did. You make life so much better.

=)