I realised last night that I have possibly grown up.
I was ironing clothes for today. I managed not to iron clothes regularly between the ages of about 18 and 37. Now I have to iron clothes because I participate in activities where one's professionalism might be judged on the crumple level of one's attire. My fresh face and sometimes frivolous attitude combined with crumpled clothes do tend to work against me so I have to work hard to come across as serious. Having a business card helps. I initially resisted the notion of a card, but it does help to push it across the table and for people to see that at least on paper, I am supposed to know what I am talking about.
Pushing a fat report across the table also helps as do cool presentations. Have you heard of Prezi? It's one of my latest useful technical acquisitions and results in really fun presentations (which of course contain serious and useful information!)
The worst thing to my mind is that last night was a Friday night and I was ironing clothes for Saturday activities. What have I become?
We are in the process of going to school open days trying to work out where Blithe Girl will go in 2012. Marburg doesn't have a high school so we have to go see the options. Hence the ironing of clothes on a Friday night and discussions of whether I can wear shorts and still come across as a serious prospective parent of a student. Two schools down and a few more to go before we have to actually make a decision. 2012 seems very close when some of the schools expect students to apply 18-24 months out.
The hardest thing for me though is to fill out the forms saying what it is that I do. Do I write down what I am paid to do or what I do for love or what I would like to be eventually? What about the fact that I have several (very small) income streams and a few more projects in the works?
Sometimes I wish I just had a nice label that I could apply as appropriate. I just can't decide -- "dilettante", "multi-tasker", "undecided?" Maybe I'm not grown up after all.
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2 comments:
There's no such thing as a grown-up person. (from the preface of Anti-Memoirs, by Andre Malraux).
And it is, I agree, difficult to sum up all your years of open interactions with the world in one or two words. So, on a business card, I'd go with the strictly business stuff -- maybe have different cards for different aspects of yourself.
I have finally landed on a title that allows me infinite flexibility and an opportunity to interject whatever fits my fancy when pressed.
Consultant.
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