Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Emperor's Clothes


When you attend a function do you notice the people who float by you without acknowledging you even though they are quite familiar with you?  Or the people who stop and ask how you are and then move on without hearing your answer?  Then there are the ones who give you eye contact and nod without hearing a word spoken.
       Recently I was at the World Oil & Gas Show and we wore name tags with our current position labelled on us like so much cattle.  As a project administrator I noted very quickly what my net value was in this world and that was similar to the one I inhabit at work.  Next to nil. Until they want something. Then suddenly I am “Susanne Darling”.  However Susanne Darling does not equate to Susanne Stupid.
       Fortunately for me, and I hope others take a page out of my notebook, I do not value myself according to my job.  I value myself on my own personal worth scale and no one knows me like I know myself. 
First of all, I know what my IQ is.  Tick.
Second, I know what my experiences are.  Tick
Third, I don’t care what others think of me.  Tick.
Bundled into my experiences are things like education, travel, friendships, career moves, extracurricular activities such as volunteer work, running political campaigns, writing, researching, supporting people, meeting celebrities, co-founding businesses and surviving the trials and tribulations of being a single woman in a complex world that does not acknowledge single women.  With this armour it is easy enough to sit at a table with 7 men who wait impatiently for me to leave so they can talk “guy talk”.  I can also observe with perfect phlegm the people who breeze past me acknowledging my co-worker on one side of me yet ignoring me as the Invisible One. 
And why I have this patience is because I recall the story of The Emperor’s Clothes.

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