• Last month, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff made jokes about ICE during an employee event.
• The comments drew criticism from some Salesforce employees and executives.
• On Thursday, President Robin Washington told staff the company is “appropriately adjusting.”

Salesforce leadership addressed the controversy around CEO Marc Benioff‘s recent jokes about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to audio of an internal meeting reviewed by Business Insider.

Salesforce President Robin Washington spoke at an all-hands meeting on Thursday, the first companywide gathering since the episode in February when Benioff joked that ICE was tracking international employees.

Washington, also the company’s chief operating officer and CFO, didn’t mention Benioff’s specific comments, but assured employees that the company was listening to them and taking appropriate action.

“We’ve got different ways of thinking, different opinions, different ways that we approach things,” Washington said, according to the audio. “What unites us is our values and how we take care of our employees.”

“It doesn’t mean we get it right all the time, but what it does mean is when we don’t get it right we appropriately engage and we’ve got various ways in which we do that,” she added.

Benioff’s comments drew criticism from some employees and executives, including Salesforce cofounder Parker Harris who said “Marc made a very bad joke,” and that he was “not OK with it.”

“We’ve been doing a lot of listening a lot of engagement from a lot of leaders and their all-hands meetings,” Washington said on Thursday. “It’s really important feedback and I want you to know that you’ve all been heard, that we’re listening and that we’re appropriately adjusting.”

The controversy comes in the midst of concern about AI disrupting software-as-a-service business models, including Salesforce offerings. Benioff downplayed those fears during the company’s latest earnings call, and did not address the ICE controversy.

Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

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• The UAE has partially opened its skies, allowing airlines to pick up stranded travelers.
• Most airlines’ regular schedules to and from much of the Middle East remain suspended.
• The State Department encouraged stranded Americans to fill out a monitoring form.

It’s been a confusing six days since missile attacks across the Middle East stranded travelers and planes in airports across the world.

Things are still far from normal as of Wednesday, but some travelers are getting home.

There is a slow-growing recovery in the United Arab Emirates, which has partially opened its skies and designated “safe” corridors for rescue planes to use.

There are a lot of people to move: cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi host large expat populations and tourists, and their hubs usually handle tens of thousands of transit passengers a day.

Working with local officials, Emirates, Flydubai, IndiGo, and Etihad Airways were among the first airlines to depart the UAE with passengers, crews, and cargo. Over 100,000 people followed these aircraft live on the aviation tracking website Flightradar24.

Even as Iranian threats continue to disrupt flying — forcing diversions, holds, and U-turns — airlines are still transporting passengers to destinations across Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Fortunately, Emirates and Etihad have big planes: many of their Airbus A380s, capable of carrying up to 615 passengers, have flown to cities such as London, Istanbul, Jeddah, Singapore, Paris, and Düsseldorf.

Although these flights don’t always take travelers all the way home, they offer a crucial escape from limbo — getting people into countries with open airspace and far more onward flight options.

Flightradar24 data shows several other carriers have joined the crowd: Air India, Air Arabia, Uzbekistan Airways, Kenya Airways, Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc, Saudi airline Flynas, Royal Jordanian, and India’s SpiceJet are all flying from Dubai to their respective hubs.

European carriers, including Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines, Prague-based Smartwings, Aegean Air, and British Airways, are running special rescue flights from neighboring Muscat, Oman. Smartwings and Croatia Airlines are running select flights from Dubai.

Air France scheduled a repatriation flight from Dubai to Paris on Thursday evening, but suspended the plan shortly after the announcement due to “the ongoing security situation.”

Russian carriers Aeroflot and S7 Airlines have similarly departed with passengers, though their flights to Moscow are taking up to three hours longer because they have to fly the long way around closed airspace rather than fly directly over it.

Still, most airlines’ regular schedules to and from much of the Middle East remain suspended until at least the weekend, and they have asked passengers not to go to the airport unless they have been specifically notified.

No US airlines have sent rescue planes as of Thursday. Mark Dombroff, an aviation attorney with the law firm Fox Rothschild, told Business Insider that even if US carriers like United or American wanted to help, they legally can’t.

“The decision-making resides with the Federal Aviation Administration,” he said. “If the FAA says you can’t fly there as a US certificated carrier, that’s it. And in a sense, it’s no different than any other restricted airspace in this country, like Washington, DC.”

Some Americans have gotten home with the help of the State Department; it previously told those in over a dozen Middle Eastern countries to evacuate. The agency said it flew a charter flight to the US on Wednesday, and that more will be “surged across the region.”

It added that, as of Wednesday, “nearly 18,000 Americans have safely returned to the US,” including 7,300 helped by the State Department. It said thousands of others made it to Europe and Asia and are in transit back, and told those still stuck to get in touch for help by calling +1 (202) 501-4444 or filling out this form.

Some airlines remain effectively frozen. Qatar Airways has not flown a plane since Saturday due to Qatar’s airspace closure, leaving practically no options for those in Doha except to wait or drive hours to Saudi Arabia and fly out from there.

Flight options are still extremely limited

While some flights are better than none at all, special airline operations remain limited to certain routes and airports.

Flightradar24 data shows that Dubai International has seen just 100 takeoffs and landings since Saturday. Operations ramped up from Monday to Tuesday — but that was still less than 10% of the roughly 1,200 flights in and out on a usual day.

Rescue flights are largely restricted to the UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia: the skies over Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Qatar, and Bahrain remain closed.

Aviation analytics Cirium estimates there are normally about 900,000 daily seats to, from, and within the Middle East; it said about 4.4 million seats in and out of the Middle East have been canceled since Saturday.

While airlines are actively adding flights to the schedule — despite the on-and-off missile threats in the region — there are nowhere near enough rescue seats yet to accommodate the tens of thousands of stranded travelers. British Airways said on social media on Wednesday that the rescue flights it planned through Saturday are already full.

Some wealthy travelers have abandoned commercial flying altogether, instead paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to charter private jets. Flightradar24 data shows a number of business aircraft flying to and from Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE since Sunday.

Those with less deep pockets have chosen to travel by bus to Oman and Saudi Arabia, hoping to secure seats from airports still operating flights as normal.

But the drives are hourslong, and Oman Air warned Muscat-bound travelers crossing in from the UAE to arrive 12 hours early as traffic backs up for miles.

• Amazon shed employees in its robotics division this week.
• Overall, the company has eliminated more than 57,000 corporate roles since 2022.
• CEO Andy Jassy is trying to reset Amazon’s corporate culture and reduce bureaucracy.

Amazon cut jobs inside its robotics division this week, the latest reductions in a sweeping cost-cutting campaign.

In a message to employees on Tuesday, seen by Business Insider, Amazon Robotics VP Scott Dresser described the changes as “difficult but necessary.” He stressed that robotics remains a “strategic priority” even as the company restructures and pares back certain efforts.

It’s unclear how many employees were affected by Tuesday’s cuts. However, the decision underscores that Amazon is still trimming its ranks, even after slashing more than 57,000 corporate roles since late 2022, including rounds of layoffs in October and January.

In parallel, Amazon has been winding down underperforming initiatives, recently closing its Fresh and Go grocery chains after years of experimentation.

An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that the company eliminated a “relatively small number of robotics roles” this week. Amazon continues to “hire and invest in strategic areas,” the spokesperson added.

“We regularly review our organizations to make sure teams are best set up to innovate and deliver for our customers,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting employees whose roles are affected with severance pay, health insurance benefits, and job placement support.”

Amazon’s vast fulfillment network relies on thousands of robots to shuttle goods across warehouses. But the team recently pulled back on Blue Jay, a warehouse robot project that launched just a few months ago, and is shifting toward a new robotics system, Business Insider previously reported.

After January’s broader layoffs by Amazon, which eliminated 16,000 corporate roles, HR chief Beth Galetti said the company was not aiming to establish “a new rhythm” of sweeping job reductions every few months, though she did not rule out further cuts.

As of the end of last year, Amazon employed about 1.58 million people worldwide, the bulk of them in warehouse and logistics positions. Roughly 350,000 of those workers are in corporate and technology roles.

Amazon has been shrinking its workforce since a pandemic-era hiring spree that dramatically expanded headcount to meet surging demand for e-commerce and cloud services.

CEO Andy Jassy has pushed to strip out layers of management and reshape Amazon’s culture to function more like the “world’s largest startup.” He has set internal goals to flatten the organization and introduced a “no bureaucracy” email alias to crowdsource ideas for operating more efficiently.

Even as it trims staff, Amazon is ramping up spending. The company has projected that capital expenditures could reach $200 billion in 2026, fueled by aggressive investments in AI data centers.

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• Golden Hour Medical develops products to help bystanders in emergencies.
• Its automatic tourniquet provides an easy-to-follow audiovisual guide for controlling bleeding.
• Community outreach and word of mouth have helped the company grow organically across industries.

This as-told-to is based on a conversation with Hannah Herbst, CEO of Golden Hour Medical, a Boca Raton, Florida, company that created AutoTQ, an automatic tourniquet system. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Blood loss is the leading cause of preventable death and trauma, and over a million people bleed to death each year.

Every time you turn on the news, you might see something that’s a consequence of blood loss, or people who are victims of it. I thought to myself: What would I do if something happened in my community? How would I help someone who’s bleeding out?

The reality is, if a million people are bleeding out every year, there are probably many millions more standing by and watching, who are helpless in that moment. That was the inspiration for AutoTQ — how do we empower bystanders to jump in and intervene at the moment of injury rather than wait for a professional to arrive?

We founded Gold Hour Medical in 2021. We’re based in Boca Raton, Florida, and have about 10 full- and part-time employees. But we’re hiring over the next few months.

We launched our first product, AutoTQ, a patented, FDA-registered automatic tourniquet, last year. AutoTQ didn’t come from one breakthrough moment; it came from hundreds of small decisions made by engineers, clinicians, manufacturers, and operators, each solving different problems together. It’s been amazing to see the adoption so far, and we’re excited.

We’re filling an important medical need

A tourniquet is a 2,000-year-old compression device. When someone is bleeding from their arm or leg, applying a tourniquet is the first intervention to stop a major bleed.

The problem is that most tourniquets on the market are designed for professionals, not for bystanders. AutoTQ provides audio and visual instructions to guide anyone through stopping a bleed. We also offer a training platform with demonstrations.

The company’s name, Golden Hour, represents the critical moments after an injury occurs. You have just seconds between injury and successful intervention before the person bleeds out.

Generating awareness has helped us grow

Our growth has always been driven by one question: How do we serve someone on the worst day of their life?

If you look at construction sites, for example, accidents happen. Those are the groups that really see the value in AutoTQ and want to implement the device.

When we show the product, people immediately want it, especially safety professionals who are overseeing hazardous industries like construction and manufacturing. Every day, 27 US workers experience work-related amputations or hospitalizations. They realize the need for this product.

Generating awareness has led to our growth. Over the past four years, we’ve focused on education and community-driven efforts, such as meeting with organizations like schools and manufacturing plants, rather than traditional paid advertising. We wanted to understand their first-response realities and shape the product around the people who would actually act in an emergency. So, we sought their feedback.

Because AutoTQ is considered a new device category, once people understand what it does and experience it firsthand, adoption follows naturally. When people realize that the product can boost their confidence in an emergency, often for the first time, they naturally share our tools with others.

Our research shows that 92% of people who tried AutoTQ under pressure applied the tourniquet correctly on their first try after watching our 30-second demo video.

Now, we have a national network of sales representatives and distributors who push AutoTQ out to their customers. A lot of the growth has been organic, word-of-mouth.

I didn’t anticipate how powerful word of mouth would be. Once someone saw the device or tried it, they told others. Our growth has been driven by people realizing they could actually help in an emergency and wanting others to feel that same confidence.

The most surprising and exciting part of the launch was how quickly people understood the need. Customers didn’t just evaluate the product; they immediately saw where it fit in their environment and wanted to implement it.

People see the product, and the most common reaction is, “Where has this been? Why has no one come up with this?”

I hope we’re in the right place at the right time

Hundreds of AutoTQ kits are currently used nationwide across different industries, including construction sites, manufacturing facilities, sports venues, hospitals, schools, and more. This includes Lee County, Florida, which has deployed the kits in several parks.

We view AutoTQ as following the Automated External Defibrillator model. We see more and more similar devices coming out to enable bystanders to intervene. We’re developing additional products that are easy for bystanders to use to help others, and we’ll release more details about them later this year.

Our goal in the first full year is to become the best in the industry at serving our customers. AutoTQ has gone through dozens of revisions to get to this point because we are relentless about building something that is right for the people using it.

Every feature, every adjustment, and every refinement has been driven by real-world feedback. We don’t see the launch as the finish line. It’s the beginning of listening, improving, and supporting our customers at the highest level.

Although I hope AutoTQ is not used, we live in a world that needs something like this. I hope that we’re in the right place at the right time.

We want to be in those places and support people in that moment where no help is coming, and it’s just them and the victim. We want to empower them to save a life.

• Recycling standards vary across the US, with municipalities often setting their own unique rules.
• Recycling the wrong material or including wet or dirty items can contaminate the waste stream.
• Some items may need to be dropped off at specific locations instead of having them collected.

Many of us have been guilty of “wish-cycling” — tossing just about every piece of paper, plastic, metal, or glass in the blue bin because it should be recyclable.

Unfortunately, recycling is more complicated than that.

What belongs in curbside recycling bins varies widely in the US. “There are literally thousands of recycling standards across the country,” Rajesh Buch, a professor at Arizona State University, where he teaches a course on sustainable business, told Business Insider.

That’s, in part, because recycling systems that can sort through piles of discarded items can cost tens of millions of dollars. “In most communities,” he said, “they don’t have the resources to have these fully loaded, full-capacity systems.”

The disposal of household batteries, for example, is a common point of discrepancy and confusion in different towns, states, and regions across the US. While the EPA recommends single-use household batteries should be sent to specialized battery recyclers, they also say that “in most communities, alkaline and zinc carbon batteries can be safely put in your household trash.”

For residents of New York City, however, the Department of Sanitation’s guidelines declare this is illegal and dangerous, citing risk of fire and explosion. New York City residents are required to dispose of their batteries at waste drop-off sites or accepting stores.

Conflicting standards can be confusing, but dumping every container or scrap can contaminate the waste stream, Buch said. The EPA’s estimate put recycling’s contamination rate at 25%.

Therefore, it’s necessary to check with your municipality to see the types of recyclables it’s equipped to handle. Earth911 has a recycling locator that can help you find where to dispose of certain recyclables, or you can pay a company like TerraCycle to do the work for you.

That said, there are some items that almost always need to go in the garbage or a special recycling facility.

1. Aerosol cans

Aerosol cans are metal with plastic caps, which should be recycled separately. Some recyclers accept the cans but others don’t.

You’ll want to make sure they’re empty if you can recycle them, especially if the cans contained chemicals.

“Some of these are dangerous to put in the blue bin,” Buch said.

2. Batteries

Some cities, like Seattle and New York, have barred people from throwing batteries in the trash because they can cause chemical leaks and fires. Batteries usually can’t be recycled curbside, either.

Instead, a battery recycling facility needs to take them, Buch said.

If you want to recycle them, you can find retail locations willing to take batteries on the site Call2Recycle.

3. Chip bags and other snack wrappers

Chip bags, granola bar wrappers, and other snack packages are often multi-layered materials, Buch said.

“You’ve got foil on the outside,” he said. “You’ve got a plastic coating on the inside, and that’s not recyclable.”

The machines aren’t able to separate the layers, he said.

Some brands’ packaging is recyclable through How2Recycle, though you’ll have to drop it off at a participating grocery store or retailer.

4. Coffee mugs and other ceramics

There isn’t good technology to recycle ceramics, Buch said. They can even damage equipment.

The same is true for heat-resistant glass used to make items like baking dishes. Unwanted ceramics can usually be discarded in the household trash.

5. Coffee pods

Over the years, coffee companies have made their pods more environmentally friendly by switching to a different type of recyclable plastic. But you still can’t just toss them in your recycling right out of the machine.

“The foil is recyclable,” Buch said. “The plastic is recyclable.” But you have to remove the foil top from the plastic cup. As with all other recycling, it should be clean and dry.

Even when properly separated, though, the pods can be what Buch calls a “nuisance item.” They’re so small that they often fall through slots or holes in sorting machines instead of getting recycled.

“Anything that’s 2 inches or smaller is going to fall out of the sorting system,” Buch said.

There are still ways to recycle some pods, though. Nescafé accepts pods you return to them, for example.

6. Diapers

Disposable diapers are difficult to recycle “even if you didn’t have all the poop inside,” Buch said. They contain a variety of materials, like plastic and cellulose.

Some recycling companies like TerraCycle might take them, but municipal facilities most likely won’t.

Some companies abroad, like Germany’s BASF, are making advancements in chemically recycling diapers using the process of gasification, Plastics News reported.

7. E-waste

Cellphones, printers, and computers contain plastic, metal, and a mix of other materials that make them poorly suited for standard recycling systems.

Many cities have separate facilities where you can drop off e-waste, or you might be able to schedule a special pickup. For example, if you have a coffee maker that’s gone kaput, a retailer like Staples might recycle it and other small appliances for free.

8. Inflatable pools and toys

In 2018, the US generated 35.7 million tons of plastic waste and only recycled about 9% of it, according to the EPA’s most recent estimates. Because there are so many different kinds of plastics, it can be difficult to know what you can and cannot throw in your blue bin.

Many plastic containers have a little symbol: recycling arrows with a number in the center. This is what’s known as a resin identification code.

Most recycling facilities accept empty, clean, dry number 1 or 2 plastic. Some locations accept numbers 1 through 7, while others won’t take numbers 3, 6, or 7. It’s best to check before you chuck your plastic in the bin.

PVC, which is number 3, is used to make inflatable pool toys, faux leather, and other goods, and is very difficult to recycle.

9. Light bulbs

There are many types of light bulbs, from CFLs to LEDs. It’s important to figure out what type you have before tossing it because many municipalities have different rules about where they go.

“Some of the old light bulbs even have mercury or other kinds of chemicals in them, like fluorescent light bulbs,” Buch said. So you may have to take them to your local hazardous waste collection site.

Some hardware stores will take certain types of bulbs, and Batteries Plus accepts a wide variety, including LEDs, incandescent bulbs, and fluorescent tubes.

10. Medical waste

Needles, syringes, and other sharp medical products can injure workers at waste and recycling facilities. Some locations have drop boxes or other collection sites that take them.

Safe Needle Disposal offers lists of disposal locations by state as well as mail-in services, which often require a fee.

11. Napkins and paper towels

You may know that you only used a paper towel to dry your hands, but the recycling facility doesn’t. They have to assume it could have been covered in food, grease, or even something hazardous.

“Those things become contaminated waste in the blue bin,” Buch said.

Plus, the fibers in these paper products are too short to get recycled.

12. Plastic Utensils

Plastic utensils have a few traits that make them a no-go for the recycling bin. For starters, the size and shape of plastic utensils mean it’s hard for them to be processed by machinery. These objects often cause jams or other issues in machines.

Additionally, they’re often made from a mix of plastics that can be hard to separate.

The waste collection company Republic Services conducted a survey of over 2,000 Americans, which found that 38% of those surveyed recycled plastic cutlery, as reported by Recycling Today.

13. Prescription pill bottles

As with coffee pods, some prescription pill bottles and their lids are small enough to fall through sorting machines and won’t be recycled.

“There might be some communities where they don’t take the pill bottle and other communities where they do,” Buch said.

14. Greasy pizza boxes

Cardboard is one of the most recycled materials in the US, but over half of what’s tossed still ends up in landfills, according to a 2019 estimate.

While most pizza boxes are made of cardboard, they’re also often greasy. “Sometimes the cardboard has cheese stuck to it, so now you’ve got cardboard with food, so it’s contaminated,” Buch said.

Some facilities will still take the boxes if they’re not too dirty.

15. Wet or unrinsed bottles and containers

While many people may throw their finished bottles in the recycling bin without much of a second thought, excess foods or liquids can complicate the recycling process. Briefly rinsing all residue from containers and letting them dry is the best practice.

If bottles still contain liquid, they could damage machinery or be rejected by the automated sorting process, according to Recycle Now.

16. Plastic bags and bubble wrap

Plastic bags and film and bubble wrap can cause serious problems for recycling equipment, acting a bit like hair caught around a vacuum roller brush.

“Plastic film stretches and becomes literally filament-like,” Buch said. “It gets wrapped around inside these sorting systems.”

The Republic Services survey found that 41% percent of those surveyed recycled plastic shopping bags.

Many grocery stores have collection boxes for plastic bags.

17. Loose plastic bottle tops

Whether you should leave plastic tops on water bottles before recycling them varies between municipalities.

“The lid is made of a different material than the plastic bottle itself,” Buch said, so they’re recycled differently.

Many facilities can separate the cap and bottle. However, you’ll still want to check with your local recycler because some require cap-free bottles.

18. Styrofoam

Many cities and states have banned Styrofoam food containers, but the substance still arrives in a lot of products and shipping packaging.

Styrofoam, also known as polystyrene, isn’t recyclable in most curbside bins. Many cities have drop-off sites, though they may only take certain types, like Styrofoam blocks.

19. Receipts

Though receipts can sometimes seem paper-like enough for the recycling bin, the thermal paper that most are printed on contains chemicals like Bisphenol-A and Bisphenol-S, which could contaminate other paper in the recycling stream or find their way into wastewater, per the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

So the next time you’re cleaning out your coat pockets, those receipts that have been in there for a year can go straight to the trash.

20. Photos and glossy photo paper

Much like receipts, recycling photos and glossy paper may seem acceptable, but the coating on most photo paper contains metals or plastic.

If you’re unsure about whether certain other glossy materials, like wrapping paper, can be recycled, you can perform the “rip test” as outlined by Ecology Center. If the material doesn’t rip in the manner printer paper would, it’s most certainly not recyclable.

• I opened a boutique without realizing I’d be sharing a building with a senior living community.
• At first, I worried we’d clash, things would feel awkward, or my store’s music would bother them.
• I was surprised when my new neighbors became my friends — now, they hang out at my store often.

When I set out to open my first-ever retail storefront for my shop, Cindy Jane Boutique, I had a specific picture in my head: a saloon-style concept, rooted in nostalgic Americana, right on the corner in our local downtown area.

I prepared for virtually everything, wanting to create the best shopping experience for my customers. Chasing visions of vintage-inspired rose-trail wallpaper, classic wainscoting, and secondhand antique furniture, I missed one crucial detail: my new neighbors.

I was so deep in our buildout that it took me a month to realize my boutique space sat immediately beneath a senior living community.

Immediately, my mind jumped to worst-case scenarios, imagining strained neighborly relations and noise complaints through our thin walls.

My assumptions were wrong.

I thought sharing a building would be stressful, but it’s become a benefit instead

My worries started to ease during our grand opening when I gave a heads-up about our sound system’s volume to my neighbor immediately above my store.

I expected wariness or frustration. Instead, he invited me to his apartment to talk, and we ended up chatting more about his encyclopedic knowledge of punk rock than volume limits.

From there, I felt myself soften. Hellos in the hallway became routine with residents from all walks of life. Conversations grew in length as each week passed.

Most importantly, the building stopped feeling like something I needed to manage carefully and instead started feeling like something I was learning to share.

Soon, the simple built-in window bench I’d installed along the front of the store was more than just a practical place to sit. It had become a bit of a community gathering spot.

On quiet weekday afternoons, senior neighbors began settling on the bench without announcement, sometimes just to talk and others for a moment of respite.

Once my senior neighbors started lingering, they also started sharing their stories. I learned about their professions, how long they’d lived upstairs, the businesses they had run, the families they had raised, and the fashion heirlooms they cherished.

Since many of them had families who had grown up in the area, they were able to teach me about the history of our shared space, too.

First built in 1912 by Frank Chance, a former Chicago Cubs player, our building was once home to Cub Grocery and Cub Pharmacy during the development of Route 66. A few of my neighbors even remember visiting the pharmacy’s soda fountain decades ago.

I started to feel the age of the place in the best way, and I found myself listening more than speaking as I was captivated by the storytelling. In some ways, the building itself came alive with stories emerging from its notoriously thin walls.

All in all, I’ve loved building community as I built my business

Sharing space with people who have lived many versions of life reshaped how I understand connection across generations.

I stopped seeing my neighbors upstairs as separate from me, and instead began to recognize that we’re on the same journey. Some of us are simply further along in our specific arcs.

Although we’ve only been sharing space for nine months, my neighbors have already taught me more about myself and my own expectations in intergenerational relationships. The realization clicked for me the day a resident in her 80s bought an ivory satin slip dress with the intent to wear it to bed.

In the past, this kind of dress may have been worn as a private piece, intended to rarely be seen, but younger generations today are styling satin slips with boots and wearing them on date nights. The fabric and construction haven’t changed, but the context has.

When I unlock the shop each morning, I no longer feel like I’m operating beneath a senior living community. I feel like I’m part of something that refuses to dim with time.