You Had To Be There

Today marked two years since the bookstore I worked at for the majority of my young adulthood closed.  At 19 years old I applied for a part-time position that would help me pay some bills while I attended college. Never in a million years did I expect that I would spend over half a decade there or that it would turn out to be the place where I found my true voice.

I walked into that building a shy teenager eager to sell copies of The Giver to strangers. Though that particular ambition hasn’t fully disappeared, the introverted girl attached to it has not been seen in quite some time. I quickly got caught up in the magic of working in a bookstore, of being surrounded by coworkers and customers who were passionate about so many different things. They all made me see the world differently and because of that my life will never be the same. The strange thing is that after 7 years of working in the same environment day in and day out that magical feeling never went away.

I’m not saying that working retail was perfect; it was far from it. I fought with my fair share of customers, I had disagreements with staff, and there were certainly days when I thought about walking out the door and not coming back. But those instances were mere brushstrokes in the big picture of it all. For a quarter of my lifetime, Borders was my home and my coworkers my family. At the end of the day, that is what I will remember about my first “real” job.

These days I try not to bore people with the thousands of Borders anecdotes I could easily rattle off at a moments notice. Instead I hold them close to my heart and save the story telling for special occasions. Today was one of those days. I was extremely glad to have the day off from work so that I could reminisce in my own way. Even though most Wednesdays find me in the vicinity of my old workplace, this Wednesday felt especially nostalgic. I thought a lot about the many faces I came to know working for Borders and spent much of the day rehashing the most ridiculous scenarios I could remember.

I was glad to discover later on that some of my coworkers were going through similar emotions. You’d think that after two years, this anniversary wouldn’t mean as much, but the truth is I don’t think this feeling of loss is something that will every fully go away. For a brief period of time, I was part of something special and my coworkers and I knew it.

I guess you just had to be there.