Lord, only me...I guess first and foremost I need to stop acting like I wasn't sitting on this little tidbit of Shellybird news for about 2 months, so here it is. I got fired from the Retailtopia back in June.
Long story short, I got into a verbal altercation with my assistant manager because I asked for my break, Her response? "Why do you think you deserve a break?"
We had words back and forth on the sales floor (a retail no-no) and a customer reported us. We were suspended and subsequently fired. Actually my assistant manager self-terminated. We had to go in and write statements the day after the incident and explain ourselves, and as bad as the situation seemed at the time, I think our jobs could have been spared. I came in full of explanations and apologies. My assistant manager came in with an attitude. Hood boogers, I tell ya...That of course made the store manager angriER. She fired the assistant manager on the spot, and told me that she would call me and let me know the district manager's decision. I found out by word of mouth about 5 days later that I was fired. I called to confirm, and the rest as they say is history. Eh, it is what it is. That store was ratchet anyway, and rife with unprofessionalism (which I admit I contributed to on the day in question.) You can call it sour grapes if you want, but I didn't belong there and folks were trying me. Newsflash: I am not the one. Overall, I don't like to be bothered, but Iwill can only be as nice to people as they are to me.
As far as I'm concerned, retail is behind me. I was a little down at first because in the space of time it takes to conceive, gestate, and birth a baby, the most remarkable thing that I managed to do was get fired. Again. When I told my sorority sister about the altercation and suspension at work, she said, "Girrlllll, if it was me and they decided to fire me, I'd be on the first bus or plane to NYC as soon as they cut me loose." She knows I am in a New York state of mind and have been for a good hot minute. However, unlike her and all of my other go-getter friends, I second guess myself out of everything I want in life. My soror also has tremendous faith in God and believes He allows certain things to happen to get you to where you need to be. She told me that He's removed me from retail twice for a reason, and I suppose He has. But, now what? Well, the same sorority sister (who's given me so much good advice that I've second-guessed myself out of taking) invited me to spend next week in Brooklyn with her and her family. She's been trying to get me up there for a while. She even tried to get me to take the apartment her parents had for rent--mercifully low rent by NYC standards--and I didn't take it, so someone else did. Well I'm going to visit and feel the city again. My train ticket has already been purchased and I printed it out yesterday. I've even dared, with my 43-year-old self, to see which model agencies are having open calls while I'm there. I've found one so far, and I'm going to give them a call in the morning to make sure they'll look at a more "mature" woman. On my first NYC trip, my bestie accompanied me to Wilhelmina Models. They have an older women's division, so I foolishly thought we'd be just as welcome at the open calls as the 7', 100 pound 14-year-olds. Nah. For all of the, "Wow, you don't look your age," remarks that I've heard in my adulthood, I must have looked every split second of the 33 years that I had under my belt in 2005, because my friend and I didn't even make it through Wilhelmina's lobby.
I don't know what's going to happen when I go to New York next week, maybe nothing, maybe everything, but I'm praying for somethinggood great. I know I just said that retail is behind me, but the reality is although I hate it, I'm good at it. It's all I know how to do with confidence. I almost feel like that poor old fella from The Shawshank Redemption when he was released from prison but prison life was all he knew and he couldn't make it on the outside. Well, Brooks Hatlen also committeed suicide. I'm not suicidal, but the lack of self-assurance is something I understand very well.
 |
| AGAIN. |
Long story short, I got into a verbal altercation with my assistant manager because I asked for my break, Her response? "Why do you think you deserve a break?"
Um, WHAT???
We had words back and forth on the sales floor (a retail no-no) and a customer reported us. We were suspended and subsequently fired. Actually my assistant manager self-terminated. We had to go in and write statements the day after the incident and explain ourselves, and as bad as the situation seemed at the time, I think our jobs could have been spared. I came in full of explanations and apologies. My assistant manager came in with an attitude. Hood boogers, I tell ya...That of course made the store manager angriER. She fired the assistant manager on the spot, and told me that she would call me and let me know the district manager's decision. I found out by word of mouth about 5 days later that I was fired. I called to confirm, and the rest as they say is history. Eh, it is what it is. That store was ratchet anyway, and rife with unprofessionalism (which I admit I contributed to on the day in question.) You can call it sour grapes if you want, but I didn't belong there and folks were trying me. Newsflash: I am not the one. Overall, I don't like to be bothered, but I
As far as I'm concerned, retail is behind me. I was a little down at first because in the space of time it takes to conceive, gestate, and birth a baby, the most remarkable thing that I managed to do was get fired. Again. When I told my sorority sister about the altercation and suspension at work, she said, "Girrlllll, if it was me and they decided to fire me, I'd be on the first bus or plane to NYC as soon as they cut me loose." She knows I am in a New York state of mind and have been for a good hot minute. However, unlike her and all of my other go-getter friends, I second guess myself out of everything I want in life. My soror also has tremendous faith in God and believes He allows certain things to happen to get you to where you need to be. She told me that He's removed me from retail twice for a reason, and I suppose He has. But, now what? Well, the same sorority sister (who's given me so much good advice that I've second-guessed myself out of taking) invited me to spend next week in Brooklyn with her and her family. She's been trying to get me up there for a while. She even tried to get me to take the apartment her parents had for rent--mercifully low rent by NYC standards--and I didn't take it, so someone else did. Well I'm going to visit and feel the city again. My train ticket has already been purchased and I printed it out yesterday. I've even dared, with my 43-year-old self, to see which model agencies are having open calls while I'm there. I've found one so far, and I'm going to give them a call in the morning to make sure they'll look at a more "mature" woman. On my first NYC trip, my bestie accompanied me to Wilhelmina Models. They have an older women's division, so I foolishly thought we'd be just as welcome at the open calls as the 7', 100 pound 14-year-olds. Nah. For all of the, "Wow, you don't look your age," remarks that I've heard in my adulthood, I must have looked every split second of the 33 years that I had under my belt in 2005, because my friend and I didn't even make it through Wilhelmina's lobby.
I don't know what's going to happen when I go to New York next week, maybe nothing, maybe everything, but I'm praying for something
 |
| Shellybird...on the inside |
I wish that achieving your dreams was as easy as it used to be back in the day...or as easy as the movies made it seem. People with dreams of stardom or just a different (read: better) life would travel to NYC or Hollywood with $200, a greasy bag of mama's chicken wings, and a dream and somehow come out on top or at least manage to stay in the city of their dreams even if success eluded them. I was watching the Steve Harvey show the other day, and Empire's Taraji P. Henson was on there talking about how she went to LA with $700 and her baby. Look at her now. I feel like if I go to New York with even a million dollars, somehow I'm still going to wind up like this:
 |
| Y'all got any more of that success??? |
I'm praying for something much better though.
No comments:
Post a Comment