Vive la jeunesse!

I got carded at the grocery store the other day. Yeah, it's nice, and it happens from time to time. I am acutely aware of the perfunctory nature of those incidents, mind you.

This time was a little different, though. As the cashier keyed my birth date into the register, she paused, looked at me curiously and said, "Bless your heart. You don't look that old."

Bless your heart. Ladies in attendance, I think we all know what that means. And it isn't good. "Bless your heart" is what we say when we feel sorry for someone but don't want come right out and say it.

So this was sort of a, "Bless your heart, I'll bet nobody anywhere takes you seriously, do they?"

And it made me think back to my corporate-working-girl days, when it was difficult to be taken seriously. I am also acutely aware of the fact that my behavior didn't help me much. I was never able to fully adopt the "work personality" that is so vital to survival in an office environment. It was just too much...well, work. And on top of the job I had to do, I simply couldn't justify it.

(I write this with no small degree of trepidation; if this book thing doesn't work out, I may be looking for a real job. And now that the world knows I'm basically incapable of acting like a grown-up, I may be limiting my opportunities.)

(And now I am shaking my head, because I know perfectly well the very small percentage of "the world" that reads these posts. I'm probably pretty safe.)

Okay, okay, okay. Why am I writing about this? Please. I never know the answer to that. How about this: I am writing about my youthful enthusiasm in the hope that business leaders out there will chew on the notion and then weigh that little bit of silliness against the exceptional work product that such types inevitably turn out. And that they will then decide the "work personality" is extremely overrated.