Mrs. Booth - Interior Designer, Rockstar

I was asked to speak to a group of 6th grade girls from a local middle school today about my career as an interior designer. The girls voted on careers they were interested in and the school brought in professional women (me) in those careers as their speakers/role models for the day. The girls chose teacher, doctor, lawyer, nutritionist, author and interior designer.

Not bad company, eh?

Highlight: when the girls got to choose which speaker they wanted to hear and my group was so big we had to pull over another table. Not to brag or anything but I had at least twice as many girls as the other tables. I felt like the coolest girl in school ;) Pshhhh, who wants to be a doctor or lawyer anyway? (Wait, actually...is it too late for me to switch tables? Shoot!) Anyway, I was feeling pretty rad until I asked them what they thought interior designers did all day long and I got a range of answers basically describing every HGTV show on television.

Oy.

So then I proceeded to launch into a detailed description about AutoCAD and fire ratings, occupancy loads and ADA codes. Then their eyes just kind of glazed over and I feared I had already lost a few good soldiers. Luckily, I'd brought visuals! Desperate to re-engage them I busted out my fanciest drawings and finish boards and pictures of our work. And who doesn't like a good before and after? Nobody, that's who! And I totally won them back over when I passed out my business cards and they went gaga over the zebra print pattern on the back.

It's the little things, ya know.

So that was my day, encouraging the hopes and dreams of our youth - nbd.

And what I took away from it was a free chocolate chip cookie and the all encompassing, irrefutable feeling that I am really, really freaking old.