You know it's bad when the alarm announces itself in the middle of a dream about Ed Westwick. After four hours sleep and rather too much champagne the night before, the only thing I succeeded in doing in the first confused minutes of the morning was thinking the wall was my pillow when throwing myself down in frustration at the fact it wasn't light and commitments required me to role out of bed. Quickly.
This was it - I'd been offered a dream opportunity marketing for an amazing, dynamic company. Any normal person would be brimming with excitement but the tube virgin I am caused me to feel only dread. I should probably mention at this point the only time I've visited London before was to go to the zoo when I was rather small and even then I had more than one 'responsible adult' with me.
Now, I was expected to navigate the tubes, streets and people by myself; I had a bad feeling. With no time for breakfast I practically ran out of the door, heels clattering and trusty hand written (read: messy scrawl) directions in hand.
But with the train pulling into the platform I felt slightly more optimistic; the new suit jacket I'd rushed out to buy did it's purpose by hiding the fact I was a 19 year old amateur with no clue and the lack of rain at least meant my perfected messy bun had stayed in place.
Unfortunately, this didn't last long. As I stumbled along the carriage, my mood was darkened slightly by the fact my neighbour on the train suffered from a love of knitting and was engaged in stitching a cardigan (or rug) the duration of the journey. With her elbows out and needles clicking away I don't know how I managed to sleep but the unattractive mouth open pose and occasional fall onto her shoulder certainly made up for the incessant clicking.
Two and a half hours of head bobbing later I arrived. Revealing I didn't know where I was going to a lady in the carriage proved to be a ridiculous idea with her mouth dropping at my inability to determine exactly what colour the circle line was.
'But it's a circle, I can't get lost' didn't satisfy her horror and she proceeded to guide me off the carriage until I'd found the correct coloured line on the floor. 'Think of yourself as Gretel' she shouted hopefully after me as I side stepped people in suits. The only problem was I wasn't heading towards a house made of sweets.
Inevitably, the tube came next. As I watched three tubes pass by I mustered up to confidence to master the 'every man for himself' approach. With the third tube pulling away it dawned on me that all I had to do was loose my politeness and pretend that my commitment was more important than everyone else. Head held high I even succeeded in gaining a seat: and with only a small lapse in moral integrity.
I proceeded to listen to the small talk so that’s so rare on the tube.My favourite snippet coming from a friend telling his boss he was late to work as he 'looked in the mirror and realized I'm a tiger.' Brilliant.
The day continued on a positive note. Not only were we provided coffee and wine (key ingredients to a successful business day) but the other employees were interesting and friendly. The sheer size and beauty of the buildings made me feel very humble, as i was transformed from girl on an adventure to aspiring individual in minutes. After a day of services, systems and strategies it wasn't just my brain that was pumped but my determination to succeed too. It wasn't until I stood on the tube on the way home that I realised how exhausted I was and exactly how much my feet hurt.
On the train home two things struck me. Take every opportunity however daunting it is. And don't pretend you can wear heels slightly to small just because they look pretty: telling yourself to 'walk through the pain' just won't work.
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