Date: 12-24-2014

Due Date: 12-24-2015

The Resolution: I've never been a big fan of Christmas or any other holiday. As an Atheist… I have no significant connection worth celebrating. As a Leap Year Baby, I have a weird grievance toward celebratory dates. As a depressed person who doesn’t relate to the festivities, I’ve always felt alone.  

Now I appreciate the family aspect of the season. I try to plan my annual trip home to share in the celebration of the birth and the existence of two fictional characters, but that's only a recent development.

For the longest time… I had no intention of ever going back home. This led to many lonely winters. I'd get invited to hang out with friend’s families but I wasn't looking for a replacement. I just wanted to be left alone.

And I was.

Over the past few years… I've gotten over my issues with “home” and have really enjoyed being with my family during this time but I’d love to be around them with or without a theme.

This is the first year, since my new found fondness, that I wasn't able to make the pilgrimage. I now work retail, where not only is my store open every day of the year; they no longer have shortened hours for the holidays. 

In fact… the store is open until midnight tonight.

It's been a little over a decade and a half since I worked on the holidays but back then I was given the option, "Do you want to work making double time and a half or do you want the day off."

Given the choice… I always worked as a way to avoid the whole pity of being lonely during these times of celebration.

This year I had no choice and I hated it.

I never want to be in this predicament ever again.

When I move back to California I'll have a little extra time to find a job that I actually want and not just accept the first offer out of desperation.

1) I will not work retail ever again…

…and…

2) I will never work at a job that is open on the holidays ever again. I don't even want the option to work on these days that are meant to blow off steam…

…oh and…

3) I will not do anything to make anyone else have to work on these special days.

I'm going to try it for a year and hopefully continue for the rest of my life.

Result #358: It may not be the best job but I'm not working on the holidays so this resolution is a success!!!

Update #1: The Conclusion…

Date: 12-24-2015

One of the problems with chancing a dream your entire life is that you end up working a lot of shitty jobs that are open during the holidays. Last year I not only had to work on every holiday there was, I was working retail which is a thankless industry for how important it is for everyone to get their shitty gifts.

I mentioned before that I'm not all that interested in special days which kind of made it worse for me to be working on them. I never got into the spirit and felt the festive consumers were hypocritically making other work while they enjoy their time with families. It also annoyed me that everyone who shops on the actual holiday... had a story to tell about how their day off has been pretty hectic.

It's annoying and I never want to do it again.

Fortunately, this year I'm working a shitty job where work is optional… and to make this resolution a success, I'm opting to not just like I did for all the other holidays throughout the year.

I'm not making much right now, but between my contracted job, my freelance work, and the various odd jobs I do online to make money I, for the most part, have full control of my schedule. I'm also educating myself to broaden my abilities to make money at home and hopefully create my own income. If I can pull off the latter this resolution will be a true success but I'm going to take the fact that I didn't work a single holiday this year to be a small victory!!!

Happy Holidays everyone.