Teach Me to Say No

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates this week! I swear, I was about to do one on Tuesday, but I was just so tired. To make up for it, I'll have a rant and a poem!

First off, I was called into work on Sunday. This in itself is rather annoying, since I had plans that day. But I am a good employee, and they were desperate. The thing is, I wasn't called into Starbucks. I was called into Safeway to work as a cashier.

For clarity for anyone who does not know, I work in a Starbucks located inside of a Safeway. That means I'm hired by Safeway, but all my training is for Starbucks. Luckily, our tills are the same, so all I had to learn on the actual till was coupons. I was given a sheet with all the codes of the produce and other bulk items, but the only thing I can remember the code for is bananas. Then people would ask for smokes, and I have no idea what anything is. They'll ramble off a name and I would have to get them to repeat it about twice more. Then they would normally have to come over to the service desk and point me to the right cupboard.

But in the end, it really wasn't that hard. It was busy during the day, since school was just getting in after the teacher's strike, so a ton of parents were finally buying lunch food for their kids. By about 9:30 it really died down though, and I got off at 11. I think we need to get everyone from the Starbucks to work a late shift as a cashier just once, so that they'll stop complaining about having to work until 8:15 for a closing shift at Starbucks.

And although I said it really wasn't that bad, I would never want to work as a cashier. My knees and legs were killing me after that, because I couldn't walk around. I never realized how easy Starbucks was on my knees, despite having to do some heavy lifting, and constantly having to bend down to grab stuff. Just standing in one spot is hard.

But enough of that. Here is the poem I promised. I had to write it for my creative writing class, but it has not been edited or revised in any way.

No

Teach me to say no.
To politely decline a request
or to outright be a bitch.
Teach me to be guiltless.
To Hell with compassion,
though I'll keep my integrity.

Teach me to be the last
rays of sunshine
on the final day of summer,
when everyone begs
me to stay, but my time is up.

Teach me to be the first leaf to brown,
to wither and shrivel
then glide peacefully to the ground.
Do not let me be the last one
that clings to the branch
as if to make a difference to the tree

Teach me to be a cat.
Not a follower.
Not a leader.
And individual
stubborn enough
to do what I please.

Teach me to relax,
to stop caring about
everyone and everything.
I am the brightest fire
that burns up first.
The sprinter
in a long distance race.
The sunset
on the longest day of the year
The last leaf
that cannot fall.
The final defender
when all others have fled.
I'm tired, I'm done.
But I cannot say no.