I went through a phase post college when I dressed like Trinity from The Matrix. It lasted two years and would have lasted longer had professional obligations not demanded I drop the black boots and vinyl trench. I’m recalling a conversation now in which the president of the company where I worked in PR had his son pull me aside and ask me what was up with my nose ring. It was a very small diamond stud that I did not have when they hired me. You are the face of this company, he said. And my thought was exactly. Maybe we all shouldn’t look like the same version of the tired Midwest soccer mom with the bad highlights who bakes you too-sweet brownies for your birthday. I didn’t say that. I don’t remember what I said, but I didn’t remove it, and they kept me anyway. Because I was good at getting cover stories and the design editors in New York liked me. It was probably my all-black attire, but I digress.
I did end up leaving to goto another company where that president drank a $700 bottle of wine, called 9-1-1, and later shot himself in the head. Some might say that job wasn’t a good career move for me.
But I ended up getting a really good job after that.
Nicole Tallman is the Poetry Ambassador for Miami-Dade County, Associate Editor for South Florida Poetry Journal and Interviews Editor for The Blue Mountain Review. She is the author of Something Kindred (The Southern Collective Experience Press), and her full-length debut collection is forthcoming in the summer. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @natallman and at nicoletallman.com.