March 2025
“Congratulations, you’ve been promoted to Team Lead.”
I wanted to gouge my eyes out.
I wanted scream at the top of my lungs and run out onto the middle of the salesfloor. To grab the nearest cash register and hurl it straight through the glass front door, showering an unsuspecting crowd of guests with a rain of sharded glass as I made my escape.
I wanted to sprint out of that god-forsaken hell hole and down the entirety of Citywalk.
Past the never ending cues to the newly open Sanrio store and the Line Friends Square.
Beyond the Super Nintendo Store and that giant teabagging gorrila.
All the way past the Jurassic Parking lot and directly towards the highway overpass from where I would launch myself onto the oncoming traffic of the 101.
I wanted to enact all that violence and more upon myself and the rest of world all because that promotion… that simple congratulatory sentence uttered by my manager had come to represent every failure and setback I had experienced in the past 3 years of my life.
Well, not at the time.
No, at the time, as I sat in the back office of our store receiving this life changing news, you may be surprised to hear that I actually wasn’t at all shocked or upset. I wasn’t filled with rage or regret.
Why would I?
After all, the promotion wasn’t exactly a surprise. I wasn’t forced to apply. I even prepared diligently for my interview. I wanted the position.
In fact, I had eagerly waited MONTHS for the Team Lead position to even become available for Citywalk employees.
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