Sometimes I struggle with the duality of the life I live.
I work in a very professional, educational setting in which, at the current job I work, I don't even get to wear jeans on Fridays. After work, I get home, throw on my Hufflepuff sweatpants and my favorite Princess Peach tee-shirt and throw on my gamer headphones and play the latest expansion of Hearthstone for a few hours after playing with my dog in the snow. It is hard during those moments to feel like a professional woman with a graduate degree.
What is harder is to keep that passion for video games and general geek-ness alive at work. Actually, just had to explain to an individual who works in HR what my husband does for a living, as it came up in casual conversation that my husband was in Boston for "work." Oh, so what does your husband do?"..... *sigh* "Well......"
Lately, in today's world, having subtle, yet stylish representations of video game and geek pride for women have been an increasing trend for places like ThinkGeek (full disclosure, liked them a lot more when they were not owned by Gamestop, but that's a whole other blog post that I now have written in my head), and Blizzard and other prominent producers of gamer swag.
I asked my Facebook friends if they had anything they loved to wear that was subtle, but geekish that they wore to work. I got a few awesome answers:
My new friend Sarah sent me pictures of her Solar System Necklace from Thinkgeek
LBHackEmUp rocking a cute Navi necklace
Super cute triforce earrings on my friend Elle!
I have a few things, but definitely lacking in the subtle, yet classy representation of geek.
My favorite is probably the Hearthstone necklace I wear probably 2-3 times a week:
A few weeks after Blizzcon 2015
Featuring the one and only Breakycpk in 2016
I also put a Lego brick keychain on my name badge so I can put my badge with my keys:
Gotta represent the BATMAN:
Added the yellow top recently. I think it looks better :)
These don't even include all the sports-geek side of my life, which I also kind of inherited from Breaky
What are some of your favorite subtle ways to show your geek pride at work? Do you have something at your desk? A scarf or two? Let's help each other and get more representation of geek culture in our professional lives!
I've never really put much thought to the difficulty one has with keeping/or trying to keep parts of their life separate. I think that the best thing is to show off the sports-geek side in a subtle manner such as the ways that you've been doing - and if someone in your professional life happens to ask about an accessory, a coffee cup, etc. then you've the opportunity to expand someone's knowledge base. The only other thing I'd advise - be nice about it, and try not to come across as a know-it-all. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteI wear a triforce necklace nearly all the time, it's fun seeing who really knows what it is! Also sometimes get away with my Stark wolf emblem necklace too!
ReplyDeleteI have an awesome stormtrooper scarf that unless you look closely just looks like a geometric pattern. Although it can be quite difficult to find items for sure.
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