Yesterday evening I went to a marketing seminar as part of my job, it was a fairly relaxed event mainly made up of local, small business owners that were looking for some advice and guidance. The company I work for had used the company hosting the seminar for bits of marketing before I started, so I went along to see what they were all about and for the free biscuits. However I realised I couldn't eat any biscuits due to the risk of biscuit debris in braces, not good for networking purposes. So i was sat waiting for the seminar to start and a gentleman came and sat next to me, he introduced himself and his business and asked me what I did, so I replied and as I was talking away I noticed him looking at my braces, then my face, then my braces, then at my face.
Now I have experienced this before, some people are more discreet and don't want to make a fuss and others do gawp at your shiny metal teeth. This man was different, he wasn't a full on gawper, I could tell he was trying to be discreet with his looking and then I realised, he wasn't offended or horrified by my braces, he was trying to work me out. I was dressed in smart clothes like an adult, I was at an adult seminar, in an adult business environment, with other adults, but I had braces on, that children and teenagers wear, not adults. He didn't expect to see braces in a business environment. In this man's defence most of the people I spoke to that night did the same thing and tried to hide a confused face.
This was my first business/work related outing with braces and I hadn't expected as much of a reaction as I got, I'm used to them now, my boyfriend, friends, family and work colleagues are too. I suppose I forgot that they were there and people just don't expect an adult to be wearing braces. It's something that we associate with children and teenagers, not adults, and I guess that's why people looked confused because they had all ready formed an opinion/impression of me before I had opened my mouth, (just as I had of them) and when I did, the braces threw that pre-formed opinion/impression of me out the window.
At first my confidence was knocked a bit and I tried to hide my braces when I spoke, but then I thought, what if that man had of opened his mouth to speak and he had a really high pitched voice, I would of pulled the same face that he just did to me, because I wasn't expecting that. So I just got on with it and actually the more confidently I spoke and interacted with other people the less they looked, or maybe I just stopped caring that they were looking, but either way I survived my first corporate event in braces and not being able to eat the biscuits was probably a good thing. I'm going on holiday in 17 days (not that I'm counting) so the bikini is going on, and a biscuit belly probably wont compliment it.
In other news, I almost conquered the super floss last night! Yaaaaay! I read the box properly and started a little earlier and it went rather well. I did get it caught on one of my hooks but it wasn't as bad as last time. I used the proper end to thread under my wires, (sooo much easier by the way) and the special spongey bit was good too and I even had a go on the normal floss. I'll be able to do this flossing lark with my eyes shut soon enough!
No comments:
Post a Comment