poncho frilly

Poncho/ Forever 21 Pants (Jumpsuit)/ Burlington Coat Factory similar Blouse/ Old Navy Bag/ Forever 21 Boots/ Forever 21 similar Hat/ Forever 21 similar Necklace/ Forever 21 similar

This Thanksgiving & Black Friday was a different one for me. It was my first one as a retail worker. Gasp! I know. And as we all know the two days now run together as one & we don’t really know where one ends & the other begins. Many boycott the latter because of the chaos & contradicting it does to the holiday celebrated just hours before. Others skip the thankfulness & heads straight for the stores. This year, I was caught in the middle & I’m here to share my thoughts & experience that I have on the ever debated issue.

Holidays aren’t a big thing for me. All of my family lives in town & I see them on a regular basis. So gathering around to eat food & have a good time is something I can do any day I choose. I also grew up having a cheerleading competition on Thanksgiving weekend so I’m used to not celebrating it in a traditional way every single year. So having to work at 6pm on this holiday really wasn’t a strain on my holiday going life. I ate turkey with my family around 1 (we always eat early anyway) & by half past four I was so ready to head to work to flee the family scene. A lot of people give stores gripe about making their employees work on a holiday, but have you ever asked workers if they care doing so? Most get paid extra for working holidays & tons are younger people who live no where near family so they don’t mind the distraction. I loved getting to spend Thanksgiving evening with my work family. It honestly just felt like another 8 hour shift. It felt no different just because it landed on a holiday.

Now for working on Black Friday? Well that’s another story itself. I was so sad to be working on Black Friday & it wasn’t because of the overload of people. Ever since I was in high school my mom & I would go shopping together all day long on Black Friday & pick up everyone’s gifts, including the ones she got me for my birthday & Christmas. It’s our tradition. We love a good sale any time of the year, but it was saddening that I didn’t get to spend the day with her doing something we love. As an avid shopper/saver it really bummed me out that I was only able to shop at one store that day in between my work shifts. Sure I saved money because I made money & didn’t spend so much. But skipping out on the shopping day tradition with my mom is more valuable to me than the money I made or the stuff I could have bought with it.

So here’s 10 things I learned this Turkey Day Weekend just to recap.

1. Working on holidays is not that bad.
2. People need to be considerate of others around them who are working while they are not working, wherever they go.
3. Family traditions cannot be relived or re-created. So soak them in.
4. Leftovers can be eaten fast. So eat them faster.
5. Working until 2am is not the bees knees.
6. Work family can be more enjoyable than relative family.
7. I love my mom & miss spending time either.
8. I don’t like my space to be invaded. By family or strangers.
9. People really do shop until they drop. Literally. I witnessed it.
10. Working retail allows me to see people I know more often than I realized. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes that’s bad.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving & it’s finally officially my birthday month!

— abbey kay

Bonus: here’s a peek at the look underneath the poncho because I had to wear all black to work that day. I still ended dressing “themed” like I have the past 3 Thanksgiving’s. So I give you, the cowboy.