There is a stranger in my bedroom. She is looking at me through eyes that are just like mine but are framed by blacker lashes. She is me and yet she is not. The girl looking back at me is a version of me: Office Girl. Five days a week I wake up and begin my transformation into OG. I wave my mascara wand and do my hair. OG's costume includes ironed blouses and heels. All dressed up and ready for a day at the office.I actually enjoy this game of adult dress-up that we all play. By putting on a suit or a skirt we assume that aura of professionalism. It doesn't matter that we barely know what we are doing, the clothes make us look like we do. It is a cloak of invincibility. But the cloak is not that thick. As the hours in the office pass the mascara gets smudged, the hair tossled and the blouse wrinkled. And it is not very comfortable either...
As soon as OG walks back into the house at the end of another day, the butterfly metamorphs back in her cocoon. Before anything else, the shoes are banned to the corner. Then the make-up comes off and the clothes are replaced by comfy PJs and fleece. Time to snuggle up on the sofa with a cuppa tea. Office girl becomes Tulipgirl again.
4 comments:
You should have stayed in science... no high heels, ironed clothing and mascara required ;-)
(well, even though I am a scientist, I do use mascara and I do iron some of my clothes. On the other hand, I have given up on the high heels)
Ironed blouses, the horror! :-) Does the job require a suit?
Not usually, it's still academia after all. Business school but still...academia.
There is no real dress code other than a sort of "smart casual". I just usually like to interpret that more smart than casual. :-) However, some days we are client-facing -a lot of our work is project based- and then we'll dress up a bit more.
Ik zie de lol er nog steeds niet van. Na het congres afgelopen zomer zijn mijn twee pakken in de kast verdwenen, en van mij mogen ze daar voorlopig weer even blijven hangen!
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