And I've never been happier! I finally realized: I'm overwhelmed. And overworked. And putting too much into my job. I commute 30-40 minutes to my store because I moved but there's not enough competent partners on my block and I wanted to keep them afloat. I'm a full time math student. I have more hours than most my partners and couldn't say no. I fell apart completely last week, haven't had free time for 6 weeks. Knowing that there's nothing wrong with me and cutting my hours has brought me back from a really dark place of self-deprecation and blame. I don't owe them window times, or stress, or more coverage than I sign up for.

I love my partners, I love my regulars, and making people smile all day, and the smell of coffee and mocha being prepped, and teaching standard, and making weird concoctions for my friends, and it feels freeing to *just* do that without worrying about the future or how my actions will affect me going forward. Because the reason I'm so happy is I'm not staying to see April. Done being the Siren's Atlas