Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Dressed for (the Appearance of) Success

Being an academic has many positives and many drawbacks.  We are never away from our work, for example, but at the same time we don't have to dress professionally to go to work during the summer.  This means that for the last three months, when we drop off Nicholas at daycare we're wearing shorts, a polo shirt or t-shirt, and sneakers (or sandals, in Sarah's case).

Does the staff at the center judge us?  Probably not, and if they did, it wouldn't matter (not at these prices, anyway).  But I at least still felt a little pang of slacker-ness when I would drop Nicholas off during the summer, since it looked like I was leaving him at daycare to go spend they day sipping a latte and reading a novel.  I'veis been looking forward to the start of the semester because it means that I will be wearing real grown-up clothes (at least on teaching days).  It's a silly nothing, really, but for some reason I feel better if his teachers think that I'm going off to do Something Important.  Oh well.

What I did not expect was this: I mentioned all of this yesterday to Sarah (it was the first day of the semester), and her response was, "oh yeah, me too!"  Which I guess I should have expected, but it made me feel a little better.  At least I'm not the only one who's crazy (and perhaps a little self-absorbed to think that anyone cares how I dress).

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