Holidays.

This is a stressful time of the year for me, but all the same I like it a lot. I work for Gamestop, a company I love to work for despite what a lot of people might think about it. The reason I love it there isn't some odd pride in the name itself or anything, but of my experiences there. I derive a very big joy from helping people give things to others. I think a lot of times it is easy. and right, to believe that humanity can be one big bad apple, but the holidays always renew my faith in people when I work retail. I don't live in a huge city, but it is fairly big and people come into the store all the time, and where I am at they are surprisingly polite. I get to joke around with them, retelling the horrors of how a soccer mom ripped off my right arm last holiday with a smile and they seem to appreciate the joke as long as I can help them find that one game no one else has, and I can indeed generally do that.

I have always loved helping customers, because it is a unique experience every time. Everyone wants something different, from the attractive twenty-something in the skin tight dress picking something up for her boyfriend, to the average joe wishing his favorite game didn't happen to come out this week, to the elderly couple eagerly spending a lot of money just to see the joy on their grand kid's face, it is a time of year that I feel like I can most make a difference. I have learned a lot from my job, about people, about myself, and about the virtues of patience. The thing I take away most from other people's retail holiday horror stories is this: If you don't smile, your customer probably won't either. People like to know that you are the same as them, stressed about the holidays and eager to to get it done fast and right. Simple, really.

On a less robust note, I just sneakily bought my sister, who is in fact the biggest michael jackson fan on the planet, a book about him that has a lot of these great page-long pictures of some of his best poses along with a history lesson about him, she is going to totally freak out because everyone in the house thought that my present for everyone was just going to be the Wii and the games I bought a few weeks before Christmas. Like I said, all sorts of people are looking for stuff this time of year, and I am the sucker who just keeps spending.

- Chris