28/05/2022
EDIT: I've removed my email address due to the irresistible urge for people to contact me & tell me I should have tried harder, done better & sucked it up. What a time to be alive hey? 🙄
The other day when I received this feedback I thought “You know what? That s**t stain is right”
I am sensitive. Heaps more so than I used to be…and I don’t see why it’s a bad thing.
So a bit over a week ago I decided to close down - I thought “I’ll just sell what’s in stock so I’m not left with heaps of bags and even more debt”
But this morning after coming back from a run, full of sweaty endorphins, my eyes started leaking when I read the overnight onslaught.
Between being attacked for cultural appropriation (by doing yoga in the paddock), for charging too much, a bit of body shaming and the clincher comment “Just because you’re keeping bags out of landfill for a while ,doesn’t mean you’re saving the planet” by a self confessed environmentalist. I knew I was done.
The fear and financial uncertainty of packing up with no job and $20,000 worth of debt is still less terrifying than dealing with nasty, entitled, unsolicited opinions on a daily (or hourly) basis.
I don’t know what I’m going to do next.
I just know it cant be this.
If I had a normal job that had me in tears several times a week I would just leave. So that’s what I’m doing.
Sadly the advice for dealing with the s**t stains of social media has been to ignore these comments & messages… but I’ve looked for my ignoring chromosome and I don’t think it’s there.
See once I read something, I cant un-read it and the damage is done. Instead of encouraging people not make bitchy comments or write entitled inbox messages, the whole expectation is on the business owner to block, delete & suck it up…
All power to those who can but I am not one of them.
Once I hear or see something hurtful, it’s there and chipping away making me sad, angry, depressed, defensive or completely unhinged. And these, my friends, are not the recommended ingredients for living a happy life.
To everyone that saw what Old Bags stood for, I’m grateful. I hope that soon we will see much more upcycling & repurposing in the mainstream and that more jobs are created for people who are often overlooked.
The website has a been pulled down but all outstanding orders will be honoured. Cheers, Jemima 👩‍🌾
