This is the End, Part 3

Yesterday was mylast day of work at Papas, so I figure I should get moving on fishing up this series.

***

I have learned a lot about myself in my time at Papa Murphys, especially through 2009. On New Years Eve, Heather had a very intense but heartfelt conversation with me privately at work. It was as both a manager and a friend. That conversation continued on several times throughout this year and I think it has finally started to sink in, but not without some casualties.

I am a jerk.

I am prideful.

I am easily angered.

I put myself before others.

I gossip.

I say hurtful things.

I am judgemental.

These are all parts of me that I have learned about the hard way over the last 8 or 9 months. I have lost some very dear friends of mine because of it. I have cried many tears. Its been painful.

But there is hope.

Mine is not a story of sorrow but of redemption! The last month or so has been one of the most incredible for me in terms of what God is doing in my life. He has told me to seek forgiveness from the people that I have hurt. He has begun to mend relationships that are broken. He has caused me to grow up in so many ways!

Even in the last couple of days, God has been fixing the areas of my life that have been ruined by my sin nature. I feel so relieved to be leaving Papa Murphys on good terms with everyone there. To be honest, even a week ago I didn't think that that would be possible. But that is what is so wonderful about God! He is transforming my way of thinking. He is transforming my opinions of others. I am becoming more and more obedient to His word!

***

Over this last month, I had really been feeling convicted to talk to one of my friends about some stuff included seeking her forgiveness for something. I had tried to talk to her for a while but some stuff happened and we weren't able to. I really wanted to talk to her this weekend since it was our last weekend as coworkers. I decided to write her a letter. I usually am really a lot better at writing people letters than talking to them in person. I am not a confrontational person. So on Thursday night I wrote this girl a letter. Unfortunately, I started falling asleep halfway through writing it. I couldn't concentrate and so I gave up for the evening.

Well Friday I went to work with no letter to give to this person and didn't think all that much of it that evening. But about 45 minutes before I got off, I had this feeling that I needed to actually talk to this person. Like have a conversation with them. With dialouge. Where they could call me on my inadequacies. Where I was vulnerable. I was scared. But after five minutes of wrestling with whether or not I shoud, I asked this girl if we could talk for a big after work. She said yes.

Let me tell you, I was so relieved after that conversation that its almost ridiculous. I had had a permanent knot in my stomach for the last few weeks that I had stopped recognizing until it was gone. God gave me the courage to speak my heart and he blessed both my friend and I through it! It was amazing!

***

I have one other person that I can't go without mentioning--Shelby. I have actually known Shelby since she was in kindergarten. She is two years older than me and is my sister's age. We didn't really talk at all until my sophomore year when we were in drivers ed together. It was later that year that we became coworkers. Shelby has become one of my very closest friends if not my best friend. She is an amazing girl who is such an inspiration to me! We can talk about anything and that is amazing. I thank God so much for providing us with our friendship.

I just couldn't not talk about Shelby in my Papas blogs.

***

If there is one thing that I hope you can take away from the story of my time at Papas, it is redemption. I've screwed up so much in so many ares over the last 2 and a half years but God still loves me and still blessed my life in more ways than I can count. Although I am extremely sad to be leaving, I am so excited for the future! I know that this is the right move for me and am so thankful for all that Jeff and Penelope have done for me!

This is the end...

This is the End, Part 2

Here is the second part of my Papa Murpys blog.

***

As I worked more at Papas, I began to get to know everyone better. Penelope held a girls Bible study on Tuesday nights that five or so of my coworkers went to. I started going to that and it was really awesome! I wasn't in a youth group at the time so the Bible study served as my youth group. We would hang out afterwards and I started getting to know everybody really well.

Despite getting along with everyone so well, I had one coworker that I felt hated me. Her name was Jocelyn. She was kind of cold to me, so it seemed, and I just felt like she didn't like me. I was actually kind of scared of her.

***

One Friday night, an old coworker Brandi was in town to visit. I didn't know her, but she seemed really nice. Everyone was going out to the movies that night to spend time with Brandi and they invited me along. My parents said I could go and I was pretty excited! This was actually my time going out with the crew after work. There were ten of us who went. I ended up sitting next to Jocelyn.

We went to this horrible Nicholas Cage movie called Next. It was so ridiculously cheesy and we were all laughing at things that weren't supposed to be funny. But really, Jocelyn and I were the ones laughing the most. I know it sounds cheesy, but from that night on we were really good friends.

We hung out together a lot. Going to the movies, to the mall, to the gym, the Donut House, anything really. Although she was two years older than me, were both starting school at Skagit Valley College in the Fall of 2007. We went to orientation together and then just hung out even more. She was the first best friend I had had in years. She was like my sister.

***

In the beginning of September 2007, my older sister moved to Leeds, England to go to school. At first, this wasn't too big of a deal. I got used to it really quick. I definitely enjoyed having a bigger bedroom! But deep inside of me, I was hurting really bad. Its really hard to go from having a sister to basically not. We couldn't talk on the phone because it was too expensive and we had a hard time video chating because the connection was always bad.

In the beginning of December 2007, my manager Heather invited me to go to a play in Seattle with her, her sisters and their husbands. Heather and I were definitely friends but we weren't very close. She was four years older than me, so we never really hung out outside of work. It kind of caught me off guard that she invited me to this play, but I was really excited. She paid for my ticket as a Christmas present and told me that she just felt like she needed to invite me.

We went out that evening and had an amazing time. From then on, we hung out a couple of times a week. We would close together at work and then just go grocery shopping together. We went to concerts together. We went shopping and she helped me pick out nice clothes for my office job.

Heather also is a very strong Christian and really helped me focus in on my relationship with Christ. She taught me how to view everything in God's plan. We prayed together a lot. She was the person that I went to whenever I had problems or something was bothering me.

She was the big sister I needed.

***

Around February of 2008, some major things happened with Jocelyn that caused us to drift apart a bit. Its not like we got into a big fight or something, she just was making some choices that I really did not agree with at all.

This was around the same time that Heather and I were getting closest in our friendship. As I lost Jocelyn, Heather became my new best friend.

Now that isn't to say that Jocelyn and I weren't close anymore. Jocelyn was and still is a very close friend of mine. We just weren't close in the same way. We couldn't talk about the things we used to. She couldn't give me advice how she used to. Things just weren't the same.

***

I grew up a lot over this time at Papa Murphys. Maybe it was because I was in college, but I really credit a lot of it to Papas. I learned responsibility. I learned teamwork. I learned how to work hard. I learned that work could be fun!

I also learned a lot about myself...

***

I'll stop there for tonight. I'll update again later this week. I actually am thinking that there are going to be two more posts for this series. I have a lot more to say. A lot of confessions. A lot of apologies. A lot of thank yous.

Not that any of my coworkers will read this...

This is the End, Part 1

Today I showed up at work and looked at the schedule for next week. It was just posted today. First I laughed at the funny note my boss put in there about why my friend had requested a day off. And then I looked up at my name. It had my shifts and then under Sunday and Monday said "THANK YOU KATIE!" And I started crying.

You see, Saturday, September 5th is going to be my last day at Papa Murphys. I put in my two and a half weeks notice recently. I've been planning on quitting for a while. I'm starting school up at Bellingham Tech at the end of September and also going to be working more hours at the dentist office. I honestly just don't have enough time to work at Papas anymore. That being said, I was kind of stupid and made my last day 1o days sooner than I planned out of anger at a certain situation. I wish I wouldn't have, but I can't change it now!

So this is going to probably end up being a two or three part blog about my time at Papa Murphys. There is a lot to cover. There have been so many laughs, so many tears, so many new friendships and so much new growth over the last 29 months. I am a completely different person because of my time at Papa Murphys in both good and bad ways. But mosty good.

***

In the March of 2007, I was working at a job where I was the youngest person my several years as well as the only person who actually followed the rules. Because of this, my coworkers hated me. When they worked with me, they had to deal with a 15 year old telling them that they actually had to do their job. It was pretty miserable working there, but not many places hire people under 16 due to labor laws. My boss at this job didn't really follow those laws and I wasn't really familiar with them.

One afternoon in the beginning of that March, I got a call from my boss. She told me that things just weren't working out with me at that job and that my coworkers were complaining about me. I was told that I was miserable to work with. My boss said that she didn't know what was going on really (she wasn't a super involved boss) but that she was going to take me off of the schedule for six weeks until she started working with us again.

Well, as you could probably have guessed, six weeks passed and she didn't call me. Luckily, I was actually searching for a new job at that time anyways. My mom and I talked and decided that it wasn't really healthy for me to be working at a place like that. I needed to be working at a positive place.

***

This part of my story is a bit difficult to talk about. I don't talk about the details of it too much. At this point in my life, I was in a depression that I had been suffering from for around three years. I started homeschooling in the seventh grade and unfortunately for me, none of my friends returned my effort to spend time together once we were no longer class mates. I had virtually no friends in middle school. I sank into this depression at that time. I never went to the doctor for it or was treated, but I was definitely depressed. This continued through to tenth grade.

I decided in my tenth grade year that I wanted to go to public high school. I wanted to be around people. I wanted to make friends again. It took a couple of weeks to convince my parents, but in August of 2006, I registered for classes at Anacortes High School. This was definitely a good move for me. I made some friends and lots of acquaintences. I was around people. It was really good for me. I began to come out of my depression a little bit, but I definitely was still suffereing from it.

***

Fast forward back to March of 2007 where I had just gotten basically fired from my job. This was a huge blow to me. I cried. A lot.

There was a family at my church that I also babysat for. They owned Papa Murphys Pizza in my town. It just so happened that they had a couple of people who were about to quit. My mom talked to Penelope, one of the store owners, on the phone one evening when she called about babysitting. Penelope told my mom that they were always cautious when hiring people under 16 because of the labor restrictions, but to have me fill out an application and bring it with me next time I babysat. So I filled out my application and waited.

Saturday, April 21st found me being woken up by my excited mom. Penelope had just called and told my mom to have me call Jeff (her husband) at Papa Murphys when I had the chance. So I got out of bed and as soon as I was awake enough, gave him a call. He asked if I would be able to come in that same day to start work. I was able to and at two o'clock went in to Papa Murphys.

***

This was a completely different work experience for me. Coming from a place with zero structure and no authority, Papa Murphys was a welcome change. There were managers, supervisors and rules. I was trained by the assistant manager, Heather, who I knew from church alhtough not very well. She was a few years older than me.

I really only worked Fridays and Saturdays until the end of the school year. I learned fast and got along with everyone pretty good. The crew started inviting me to hang out with them on random Friday nights. I really was happy there. I knew right away that it was where God wanted me and had purposefully placed me.

***

Okay, so its now 3:02 AM and I need to go to bed. I will be posting the second and third parts of this story over the next week or so. I'm also planning some fun stuff to leave at Papa Murphys for people to remember me by. Not that they will forget obnoxious me anytime soon...