"If you don't like your job, quit."

I am officially a free woman.

When I first came across the Holstee Manifesto, though its entirety proved very potently truthful, the line that struck me most in my current life was “If you don’t like your job, quit.” This simple statement was both oddly commanding, and extremely encouraging for me to continue forward in my journey for meaningful work.

For several years now, my mantra had been (sadly) closer to one of the following: "If you don't love what you do, you're screwed," or "Work doesn't matter: you do it, you get paid, you leave," or "Only lucky people really like their jobs."

I don't know the entire truth of it, but now, I know what it feels like to have hope. And quitting doesn't feel simple, I know. We all worry about money, about paying our bills or our rent, about being unemployed, about survival. If someone hates their job and you suggest walking away from it, they'll most likely scoff or brush your comment aside as childish or irresponsible. Who quits their job, people have said to me. In this economy, you take what you can get.

Maybe. And I don't want to seem ungrateful. Even though I wasn't happy working there, I am able to admit I was lucky, I made some wonderful friends, I had some irreplaceable experiences (and lessons therein), and I met the love of my life two winters ago, when he wandered in, adorably clad in red plaid, to buy a cup of coffee. Clearly, there are no accidents.

A chapter in my life that at one time felt eternal is now fully closed, is fully ended, is fully behind me. For all the time I spent wondering when I would ever make it to the end of that portion of the journey, I am now having a tough time remembering the specifics, most of it seeming like a breezy three-year blur disappearing behind me as I walked away for the very last time.

Even though, in my head, I heard the words from Aretha Franklin's "Think," (you know, the "FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM" part?), driving out of the parking lot after my last shift, (vandalized) apron and hat already in the dumpster (and all other work clothes and shoes soon to follow), the radio appropriately (and nearly eerily) serenaded me with Florence + The Machine's "Shake It Out." It's always darkest before the dawn, she says. Goddamn, don't I know it.

Though it seems to me that dawn is finally here.

The Holstee Handover

Well, people, it is official: I am now part of the full-time family team with Holstee!

A sudden sad but exciting switch in events, ie. Mary Shouvlin pursuing a new career opportunity (you should check out her awesome blog here). This turn has led to the instant shortening of my duration as Holstee's Community Love Intern and catapaulted me directly into all things customer appreciation, social media monitoring, blog-post writing, community engagement, etc.

For all of you who understood my literal quest via green liberation jumpsuit, I can now, nearly three years later, announce that the piece of Holstee's Manifesto that initially struck me most, hit me right in the center of my gut and my being, will be coming true for me at the end of June:

If you don't like your job, quit.

More to come on this ANY DAY NOW, but for the moment: though extremely excited to finally be walking away from a place that was all wrong for me from the start, I am quietly grateful for the chance to finally do this through the company that first inspired that possibility. All things, yes ALL THINGS, can be brought together for good. I have received some of the best gifts (I mean, meeting the love of my LIFE?!) of all time while wearing a green apron and a drive-thru headset. There are truly no accidents, a fact I believe now more than ever. We face challenges for a reason, we get through them for the better. All things new, and I still can't believe it's happening. COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS.