Like a Boss!

When I was in the fourth grade my grandfather gave me a blue plastic brief case for Christmas. He was always getting me something that I would have never thought of asking for and this was one of those things. I don't remember what was on my Christmas list that year but I am pretty sure a blue brief case was not one of the things. But, nevertheless, I thought it was pretty cool and I knew that none of my friends would have one. So, after Christmas break I happily loaded all of my papers in it for school, which was not much at the time. Those were the days when you didn't have to carry two tons of school books home with you and lug them back and forth to school. So, I put my handful of papers in it and headed to school. All of my friends thought that it was pretty cool too and had never seen anything like it before. I must admit it was a unique gift. Plus I thought it made me look like a business woman. A business woman in a Catholic School uniform. We had green uniforms at the time. I wore a green sweater, green plaid skirt, green tights, and white shoes, with a crisp white blouse to top everything off. Looking back I probably resembled a human green frog. But, at the time it was what we had to wear so I wore that uniform proudly and I proudly carried that blue briefcase with me back and forth to school for months, until the school year ended. That was the last year I carried any sort of backpack. Once I got to the fifth grade which was considered the upper grades, I guess because in the fifth grade you had to walk up 3 stairs to get to the classroom and we were all proud to walk up those extra steps made us feel grown up. After the forth grade I carried my books in my arms all the way through high school. 

What made me remember that plastic blue briefcase was that I was looking at backpacks with my son the other day online and we happen to see some briefcase, I think that we clicked one too many times. But, he asked me if I ever had one when I was a kid or an adult. I told him about my blue one and later on when I was around 20 I think, I had an interview with the local school for office assistant, by then my grandfather had gotten me a new briefcase. It was a brown leather one with a short handle and so for the interview along with my "business suit" which consisted of a rust colored skirt, white blouse and tan jacket, I took along my brand new leather briefcase I had gotten for Christmas of course. I guess since the blue one was a hit many years before he decided to get me another one years later.  So, armed with my briefcase in hand I walked with confidence to the front desk and told the receptionist I was there for an interview. She sort of eyed my briefcase and probably wondered what I could possibly have in it since I was so young and so inexperienced. I really didn't have anything in it but my resume, the application I filled out for the job, and some references in case she asked. I took a seat and waited to be called. I was the only one there and felt good. A few minutes later this tall professional looking burnette woman with long, long hair called me into her office. I was a little disappointed that she didn't ask for my resume or anything else I had in my briefcase because it would have given me a reason to open it. I had practiced opening it with precision and it only took me a few seconds to get it open and closed. But, she didn't ask for anything just the routine questions they used to ask back then and I answered to the best of my ability and figured that it wouldn't hurt to tell her that  two summers ago I had worked there for the summer with the youth job program helping out the receptionist, a different receptionist though that probably had moved on to another job. She seemed impressed that I knew the old one and thanked me for coming in. On the way out she eyed my briefcase somewhat and was probably wondering what I had in it also. Although, I didn't get the job what I did gain was some newly acquired confidence thanks to my brown leather briefcase. I carried it around to many interviews afterwards like a boss.  And a few times even got to open it up.