85°C Bakery Cafe, which is a Taiwanese based bakery, held its grand opening in Chandler, PHX last week. The grand opening was so hype that the line to get drinks and bakery items was at least 1 hour long. I wasn’t all that surprised by the hype because it’s a great place to hang out and eat. I have one close to my hometown in CA and I usually get some bread to go every time I head back to AZ. I remember the one that opened closest to where I lived had a line that wrapped around the store all the way down the major street. The wait was 2 hours just to get into the store. I didn’t want to wait over an hour just to get a drink at the PHX store so I ended up leaving.
Some part of me knew that the hype for the store would die down and it usually does for many restaurants after their grand opening. I feel like this initial upwards hype and then die down in interest become a pattern. If I had to guess, it’s because the novelty of the restaurant is no longer there. I feel like the public gets used to the restaurant and the restaurant has stopped providing new goods or services that uphold the novelty it first bought to the public at the grand opening. It’s like the restaurant got comfortable with the situation.
By no means am I trying to defame or put down 85C. I absolutely love the place and would highly recommend anybody to go check out. It’s just this sort of trajectory of having this huge jolt of excitement at first and then slowly losing excitement for something describes my feelings toward the December holidays.
The initial jolt of excitement
Up until last year, I used to be so hype for the Christmas holidays. I would always play Christmas music around Thanksgiving. I’d be looking forward to giving and opening presents and spending time with family and friends. The smell of pine and sometimes fresh rain always made me so joyful for the holidays. Seeing the Christmas lights around my neighborhood always put a smile on my face. Putting up the Christmas tree with my roommate was a tradition that never got old because we’d get new ornaments. There was always something to look forward to doing with others.
So where did things just start becoming less exciting? Where did I feel like the joy became less?
Becoming more lonely and having more conflicting schedules amongst friends
To be honest, I think this whole feeling of being less excited for the holidays comes from feeling more lonely and having more conflicting schedules amongst friends. Ever since I started this career change, I put my friends and relationships on the back burner. They didn’t become a top priority; it wasn’t an intentional choice but as I realized how much work and energy this career change required, I had less and less energy to commit to growing friendships. Overtime, I got used to being alone. The whole journey has sucked because it’s been so lonely but when you’re in that sort of lone wolf mindset for so long, it starts to become the new normal. So festivities that have high energy and excitement became more foreign and less interesting to seek out.
It’s also getting harder to plan stuff with friends because everybody has their own unique and chaotic schedules. When I was still in school, everybody had a similar schedule and more often than not, were in the same area. You get the last 2 weeks off and people would often fly home. It was a lot easier then to plan events and have fun. Nowadays, most of my friends (at least the ones I tried to hold onto before I started my career change) are out of state or have less and less time to hang out. Ugh! Not having people around to celebrate the holidays also makes it less fun and joyous. Like…my roommate left for another job so putting up the Christmas tree wasn’t as interesting because it felt like it was less festive doing it by myself.
Closing Thoughts
Usually I try to share some sort of practical piece of advice that you can do to really improve yourself or a situation. But as I thought through what I could share with you as the reader, I struggled to provide one because this situation of mine is rather unique to me. I don’t want to force someone to change how they view these holidays because I don’t know their situation or personality to say “hey I really think you should brighten up and see the holidays as good.”
What I can say is that I hope to get back that excitement I used to have for the holidays. I know I can’t change my friend’s or family’s schedule so that we can all meet together as easily as before, but I can change how I use my time now. It’s a bit cliché to say this but we only have so much time in a day to hang out with people and do things we enjoy. I’m starting to value my time more now. I’m reaching out earlier to friends to see if they can hang out for the holidays. I’m trying to see what I can do with my family now that we all have time to get together.
As for you, I hope your December has been well. What kind of things are you planning for the holidays? Would love to hear from you!
As always,
Be Confident. Stay Curious.