Prologue
“Why do I get up every morning? Who needs me in this world?”
One cold and early morning in January 2019, I woke up to the sound of the alarm as usual and asked myself these questions.
It was the darkest morning in my life, ever.
I started working as a florist in Cologne but in contrast to the beautiful flowers around me, I had a very difficult time.
I couldn’t express myself at all. I had no feeling that I could be helpful or make someone happy, even for a little bit.
“What do I really want to do?” I repeated this question every single moment and didn’t live in the present..
I completly lost myself and started hating myself.
Thanks to my wonderful friends who always lighted my life up, I could notice at some point,
why can I be who I actually am with friends and not at work?
Because of the atmosphere, because of my poor language skils and work experiences, because of the weather, because because because…
I was too passive and dependent on my circumstances, becoming infucened by anything and not even close to giving positive energy to someone.
About one month after the depressive morning, I decided to give extra positive and bright “good morning”s + hugs and kisses to my colleagues and
since that second, I’m not exaggerating, really since that second, the world has been looking completly different and my life started changing!
But this is just the beginning of the story.
The Origin Story of Avocado Friday
The story starts at a flower shop in Cologne, Germany.
One morning at work I received a gift from one of my colleagues, it was a pair of avocado print socks.
She bought one for me and one for herself, for no special reason, just because she thought of me while shopping. How lovely…..!!!
I said to her: “We should always wear them together!”
“Yeah, let’s do it every Friday!” she replied immediately.
It was one Friday in March 2020. Yes, Avocado Friday was born.
Since then we wore our socks every single Friday at work.
It was so fun to have avocados with us on Fridays, we started showing our socks to other colleagues.
“Oh yeah, it’s already Friday again.”
At some point our colleagues didn’t need to check the calendar anymore, because they knew that it was Friday when they saw our socks 😉
Me: “Mr. Boss! Today is Avocado Friday, where are your avocado socks??”
Mr. Boss: “I don’t have socks but underwear…LOL”
With small conversations like this we could make the atmosphere at work funnier or more relaxed, even when someone had a bad mood
These are the Avocado Friday vibes!
Can you imagine how exciting it is to have Avocado Friday every week?
Every Thursday evening: preparing your avocado socks. I always feel as if it was the night before a trip.
We are just looking forward to our positive vibes and hope that we can make people around us smile as well.
In the afternoon on a cool spring Friday, Mrs. Boss came back from her lunch break with a paper bag full of avocados.
You know what, she bought avocados for all of us!
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!
Shortly after she gave us the avocados, one customer came into the shop and Mrs. Boss said,
“Would you like Avocado as well?
Because today is Avocado Friday, two of my colleagues are celebrating Avocado Friday every week, I don’t know why but it is a good day!”
!!!!!!!!!!!!! xD xD xD
The world started being avocanised!!!!!!!!!!
This Avocado Friday recharged my almost empty soul with the real motivation that I lost.
Which is sharing positive vibes with others, being warm, caring about others and making others happy…
Eventually more and more colleagues (of course our Bosses as well!) of mine got involved and Avocado Friday has become our weekly ritual, has been raising the mood at work!
Are there probably more people like me a few years ago, who got lost or lost themselves although they have a lot of potential motivation?
Or people who can not get out of the “somehow not feeling well with myself” or “I don’t know what I want to do” spiral?
If yes…why can I not spread these vibes more to the world not only in this small shop in Cologne?!
That is the reason why I started this Avocado Friday project…
…hoping to support someone to change thier small worlds.
Thank you very much for reading this long story! I really appreciate your support <3
Akane Kawabata
Avocado Friday Producer
