I’ve accumulated so many Google shirts that it’s often all I wear to work — I’m a lazy dresser. This is fine at work, but sometimes I feel a little awkward outside of work. I was at the grocery store tonight after my Korean lesson. The guy behind me in line says, you work at Google, pointing to my shirt, and I said yes, and he said lucky you. This isn’t the first time someone’s said that to me and I always wonder what exactly they mean. Lucky me because Google’s an awesome place to work? Or lucky me cause you think I’ve made money on the IPO? If it’s the former, then yay! lucky me! If it’s the latter, I didn’t go full time until after the IPO. I sort of have this desire to tell people that.
I had a cashier at Long’s tell me once how lucky I was to work there; when did I start? About a year ago. Oh! Before the IPO. So lucky. What university did you graduate from? USC. It’s a question my mother would’ve asked. I wanted to tell her I started there before the IPO, but was a contractor for almost a year before I went full time. But what right does she have to that additional information about me? I guess in some way I want to comfort her — to let her know that she may think I’m luckier than her, but I’m not really. I’m a lot like her — just a working girl with bills to pay. Maybe I like my job and the company I work for more than she likes hers, but we’re really not so different at all.
