Christmas Eve was when it really hit me. In one week Westgate was going to close. The signs were all around. Sections of the store that were once filled to the brim with books were now empty and taped off. The only clearance product left was the crap no one wanted. I could no longer go into the stockroom to check to see if a book was back there for a customer.

At that time I started to really look at what I was going to miss about working at the store. Friends, coworkers, employee discount… it got to the point that I was started to miss the things I hated too. It got that bleak.