It's really hard to feel professional when you're not feeling well. I'm wearing one of my more business-y outfits, but my nose is all stuffed up, which means that I have to mouth-breathe (which I hate, because I couldn't breathe through my nose literally for years, and people made comments about how loud I breathe, so now I'm very sensitive to it) and I just feel very unprofessional--like a kid playing at being a grown-up. Does that feeling ever go away? And with my birthday coming up, there will inevitably the comments about how young I am ("You're only 24? I could be your mother!").
But I was delivering mail and started chatting with the AA (administrative assistant) to the division, and she asked me about what I actually do (good question), and I talked about starting to do more project management and she's like, "That's really good. And you have such a nice personality, it'll all go well." In retrospect, it's an odd statement, but it made me feel good.
Even after the comments about this being my first post-college job.
Current song in my head:
"Sloop John B" by the Beach Boys