Don't Quit Your Daydream
That’s the motto I’ve adopted for my first year out of college. I even put it on my new business cards. Cliché? Yes. Effective? Absolutely.
I’ve been interning with the same company since the summer of 2013. I received a call from my boss literally right before I was about to walk into graduation telling me she wanted me to work as an intern for a bit longer until the paperwork was sorted for a full-time offer. Besides excitement (obviously) for a job right out of college, my first thoughts were: I have to decorate my desk. I won’t survive unless I decorate my desk.
Using the word “survive” may be a tad over the top, which I am more than guilty of on multiple counts, but I mean it. If you think about it, a single person in a typical desk job spends nine hours of their day in an office. That means they will spend the majority of their working lives sitting indoors.
For me, being in a grey 6’ x 6’ cube all day every day would drive me insane. The majority of my intern career was spent working remotely from my apartment back in College Station, so I never spent more than a few months at my desk and therefore never felt the need to decorate. My “home office” at school also served as a bedroom, bathroom, dining table and home theater. Needless to say, “feeling at home” wasn’t a problem. So the minute I found out I’d be back in my cube for the long haul, I was determined to make it a home away from home, a quiet and private place to work that also gets the creative juices flowing.
Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t cheap. I tried to be as cost efficient as possible when it came to decorating, but I still probably rang in at a couple hundred dollars. My company would’ve paid for office supplies, but I figured if I wanted a golden stapler and an over-priced but adorable cup from Anthropologie for pens, I wanted to keep it long after I had moved on from this job. (I also don’t think those would really count as “approved expenses.”) So after many nights of shopping online and a few Hobby Lobby trips later, I finally “moved in” a couple of weeks ago and I couldn’t be happier!
Just because your desk is mundane doesn’t mean you have to be.
So whether your first job has you in the corner executive suite or your company “doesn’t believe in boundaries” so you’re stuck fighting for the desk near a window every day, make your space your own. Decorate. Bring a fern. Get a lamp. And above all, in whatever environment you happen to find yourself in or whichever career you choose, “don’t quit your daydream.”
If you want to see where I got some of my desk accessories, check out my Instagram @jkibz15. For my desk inspiration, view the board I created on Pinterest.
[Photo by Juliette Kibodeaux.]
