So long Starbucks...

I have been going to Starbucks every single day, minimum once a day, for the last 13 years... or just about...
I have very rarely missed... rain or shine....  snowstorm or heat wave...  feeling good or sick...
It was my go-to place, my home away from home to talk about life with my love, son or friends...

It was then, only logical, that once I moved to Moncton and wanted to work in a coffee shop, that I ended there... After all, it was giving my free drinks while working and 30% discount all other times! Plus, I spent so much money there, I thought it was time they gave back!

However, last week, I announced that I had given my resignation... and this, which I assumed would cause a storm within my circle, actually was the opposite...  people were very understanding and NOT SURPRISED! Most of them claimed that leaving Starbucks was actually more in-line with the rest of my lifestyle! Even my boss mentioned that, even though she was sad to loose me, she wondered for almost two years what I was doing there...

I ended up being surprise that no one mentioned it to me earlier... such a discrepancy in my life.... and I am ashamed I did not see it earlier!

For some reason, since I moved here, two years ago, I have been on a path to furthermore simplify my life... and shop less... and think before I spend any dollars!  For that reason, I started my 367 days shopping ban last November. Now this challenge as somehow changed me... and following the rules I set for myself has sometimes been easy and sometimes not so much...  I wrote about an update last week which you can read here.  I do not want to repeat myself.

I think that all that reading I have been doing (reading marathon) and all that thinking about my money spent has open my eyes on something I was refusing to see before... One of the thing I have set myself up, as part of this challenge, is to buy more local stuff...  and for some reason, it hit me somewhere beginning of March, that I was actually working in a business that was not at all local!  Nothing is local about big corporations...  and if I tried avoiding them as much as I could (not possible to always do so where I live as there are not many other options for some stuff), why was I working in one? And why was I spending all my free time in it too? Well, spending my free time there only made sense as I had a considerable discount...  but I suddenly realize that I could no longer work there... and every shift from then on made me really unhappy... I then started to look for another job... but stuff like "but you have the perfect schedule" , "you get 30% off", "your boss is amazing", "it's walking distance from home" were holding me there... Stillness is so easy and comfortable. But I know myself now... once a seed is planted, it will grow... give it time! And the time came...  and something really nice presented itself to me...  and I jumped on it!  Not because I am not terrified by change...  because I still am!!!  But because I learned to trust life...  when you plant a seed in the Universe, it will grow and find it's way...  If you do not look so hard, the right things/opportunities/people find you... and this is what happened! Therefore, in order to be honest to myself, I have to try this...

And no long after I gave my resignation, it started sinking in that I could no longer go there as a customer either... that would be AWFUL! Imagine working in a local coffee shop and spending your money on a big corporation who does not need it? There is no way I could do that... so I decided that I would go as long as my discount applied or as long as I had not started working in my new job - which ever came first! Well, the discount thing is off as of today - and I am starting work on Thursday in my new coffee shop  ( Cafe c'est la vie )... therefore I took my last free soy chai and stepped out... knowing that I would not be back anytime soon!

Some may think that I am silly to write a post about this... but Starbucks has been a HUGE part of my life...  back in my hometown and here, where I basically met everyone I know in Moncton. It is a 13 years old habit that I have to break...  and habits are habits... never easy to get rid off!  I know I can do this... but I also know that I need to write about it... because writing about stuff helps me... and sometimes helps you too!

Be who you are... DREAM your life... LIVE your dream...
namaste

love&peace,

chloe

xox