Friends, it's Rosie here.
Welcome back to Radio Headspace.
My first job was at a mall.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
Every morning before the stores opened, before the lights fully came on and the music started
looping through the speakers, there was a group of people who were already there.
We called them the mall walkers.
They would show up like clockwork.
Same time, same pace, same quiet determination.
Mostly older folks, often in pairs, moving through the empty corridors while the rest of the world was still waking up.
You could hear them before you saw them.
You know that sound.
That soft rhythm of sneakers on tile,
the swish of windbreakers brushing against themselves as their arms pumped steadily at their sides.
At the time, I didn't think much of it.
It was just a part of the scenery.
Something predictable in a place that otherwise felt loud and chaotic once the day got going.
I would watch them swift by with urgency, and no clear destination.
But I think about them now a lot.
Because lately, I've found myself becoming one of them.