Last week for the first time in years, I painted my fingernails. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but it was almost like being a new me.
My former place of employment didn’t allow nail polish ( for a very good reason, not as a dress code issue or a management issue) in most of its facility, so instead of wearing gloves everywhere, I just stopped wearing nail polish. I stopped doing a lot of things that before were comforting, habitual, and expressive of my personality. I love earrings. But because of the rules, I stopped wearing earrings. Some employees would have them for outside of work or the occasional lunch, but I’d forgone them altogether. I didn’t want to forget and wear them somewhere I shouldn’t have.
Now, I type most of my day, so who knows how long this will last, but being able the wear nail polish again was a small victory for me. I never realized how much I adapted myself to the company instead of just being myself.
Sometimes you’re so consumed with what you’ve lost when you lose a job, you forget to see what you’ve gained.