My favorite coffee mug was given to me by Kelsey. It’s simple - a small image of a typewriter, and the words “write your own story.” Here’s why I like it so much.
In the summer of 2013 I wasn’t sure what my future held. While technically still a graduate student at MU, I wasn’t making any progress on my degree. With major changes in the freshman curriculum on the way at Stephens College, my job there was in jeopardy. Everything seemed up in the air. I had moved back to Missouri, bringing Kelsey with me, to finish my graduate program, and I no longer thought I could do it.
Then on a sunny Friday near the end of June, I picked Kelsey up from work and we went downtown for ice cream at Sparky’s. We crossed the street, ice cream in hand, to visit the little used bookshop called Get Lost! I’d traded in books there in the past, and thought we’d use some of our store credit. When we checked out, the clerk told us that we’d better use up the rest of our credit quickly, because the store was going to close at the end of July. He paused, then added: “Unless the owner finds the right buyer.” And as we’ve written elsewhere, this was one of the magic moments in your life when the universe slows down, and speaks to you. We looked at each other with the same unspoken thought: “maybe we’re the right buyers.”
And the rest is history - we met with Amy, Get Lost’s owner, things went well, and just over a month later we opened as Yellow Dog Bookshop. But in the interim was a period where I had a decision to make - did I really want to walk away from academia? Did I want to give up on finishing my degrees, when I had put in so many years and so much effort toward that end? Did I really want to return to bookselling and retail? In the end, I decided that this my chance to write my own story: to let go of the old narrative of my life and move in a new direction, to build a bookshop with Kelsey from the ground up, just the way we wanted it.
The story has gone well so far - though as we finish up our seventh year we’ve had a hell of a plot twist thrown our way by COVID-19. As we work on getting a new lease in place and mapping out how to safely reopen in the midst of an unpredictable pandemic, we’re counting on the support of our customers, all the relationships we’ve built these last years, to see us through. We know life has changed for many of you as well, and there will be more hardships and challenges to come. But we hope that to the extent possible, you can write your own story too - take charge of your narrative, and use what agency you have to make it better.
- Joe
Our Yellow Dog mugs are back in stock and this time include the vintage typewriter and words, write your own story on the opposite side. Click below or visit our Merch page.
