Saying Goodbye

It's difficult to say goodbye to a long chapter of your life. And to say hello to a new adventure.

Friday, April 11th, was officially my last day working for Starbucks. Our wonderful cafe is closing down and I've chosen to not transfer to another store.

It's an extremely saddening event, because I love that cafe and all of the people that made up the Layton Cafe family.

I decided not to continue my employment at Starbucks because I feel like this was the opportunity to get serious about my freelance illustration career.

As much as I love everyone there I have absolutely no desire to make a career out of being a barista, or to move up within the Starbucks company. They are an amazing company to work for, and I've gained a lot of respect for them after having worked there for nearly three years.

But being a barista for the rest of my life is not my passion.

Creating magical and whimsical illustrations and worlds that can put a smile on someone's face is my passion. It makes me so happy when a person's face lights up when looking at one of my prints.

There's enough negativity in the world, and I want to fight it with cute and silly animal pictures.

I learned a lot about interacting with others, having empathy, and being like a duck and letting the water roll off of your back when crap happens. I learned to listen to people, and to use common sense and even grace when dealing with each and every person that walked through the door.

I'm not perfect and every now and then I got a little sassy and snippy.

But the most important lesson I learned was how great of an impact you can have on people.

You can make such a huge difference in a person's life and day just by either smiling at them, or being rude to them. I strived to make a positive impact (I know how hard it is for a lot of folks to get up at 5:30am), because I wanted everyone to have an amazing day and feel the joy that I felt on the inside.

I always joke that I get my high off of sunshine and Jesus, but I feel like it's the truth.

There were many days that without a lot of prayer and help from God I would not have been so bubbly. There were days that I wanted to be a grumpy cat. There were days where waking up at 4:30am in the morning was the most difficult thing I had to accomplish for the day.

But somehow, God filled me up with sunshine and happiness to try and spread it to everyone I met for that day.

I hope that all of my fellow partners carry on the magic of our cafe to their new homes. I feel like all of the other Starbucks stores out there could use a little bit of our magic to help grow and create that human connection.

I will miss all of my regulars, partners in crime, and the smell of coffee dearly. I will miss my beloved espresso machine to the left, my morning chocolate soymilk, and the dangerous call of the pastries.

I hope you all know that I love you guys very dearly, and that while I'm super excited to start my new journey it comes with a very heavy and sad price.

I designed this poster to remind me and my Layton Cafe family about our amazing store and the magic we all shared and were a part of.

This print will be available at the Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience this week, and in my online shop afterwards if you weren't able to snag one from me Sunday morning (or at Comic Con).

I got asked quite a bit at the AIGA student portfolio review about my process. And so from now on I'll be posting process posts with each completed print. So expect one shortly concerning this bad boy, and a couple of my other prints!

Goodbye, my cafe family.