Summer 1997: I had a temp job for a computer training company. The job was in Framingham, MA, and was a long-term assignment for the better part of the summer as their front desk receptionist. It was kind of a fun job, one that I had to dress nicely for every day. This was a far cry from my college uniform of jeans and t-shirts! I did rather well with the company assignment and they eventually asked me to cover their Boston office for a few days that summer as well. I remember being excited, asking my mom about which decorative scarf I should wear with my black business suit, and taking the train to the city by myself. Getting off with the hundreds of other "Boston Businesswomen" at South Station, most of them wearing sneakers with their sensible skirt-suits in order to make the walk. I wasn't quite as smart and wound up with blisters...but who cares? I was working in "the city" for a few days! Walking up Atlantic Avenue, feeling stoked that I was part of the Working World, the Real World.
Fast forward to November, 2011. I'm driving to Boston next Monday for an important business meeting for my new apartment complex. I'll wear whatever's clean and in the closet on Monday, and you can bet the ensemble will include more sensible shoes. I'll hurriedly drop off the kids at their morning destinations, fight morning traffic down the Mass Pike, pay a mortgage's worth to park in the garage and then drive back after the meeting. Only now instead of feeling "stoked" I'll be mind-boggled with the amount of work there is to be done and viewing the trip home as a pain-in-the-ass.
Funny what a difference fourteen years makes, no? I miss that college "get up and go!" attitude. Maybe I'll accessorize with a scarf to pay tribute to that girl, I miss her sometimes. :)
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