Many young adults find themselves struggling to shed their college-age persona when trying to break into the working world. I have always been a T-shirt and jeans kind of person and I had a very difficult time turning myself into the business casual type of employee that my office job required. I felt as though I had given up all of my fashion personality to be the office employee I was pretending to be. I had to find some way of incorporating who I really was into the employee I was expected to be if I was going to keep my sanity and my job.

When I looked at my closet trying to decide what was the one piece of my wardrobe that I missed the most while in the office world, I realized that it had to be my converse tennis shoes. I wore those shoes every day since I was in junior high and I was sad to see that person go. It was then and there that I decided I would start wearing my converse tennis shoes again and this time it would be to work.

I consider converse tennis shoes to be a classic. Not only are they a fashion statement, saying what exactly I do not know, but they were an important piece of the person I advertised myself to be. After over a decade of wearing them, they had become a part of my personality and I could not ignore them any longer.

My favorite pair of converse tennis shoes are my black and white one stars. I think black and white pretty much go with anything so I did not expect to find a difficult time putting them together with a business casual outfit for the office. The first experimental outfit consisted of a pair of black pants, a white shirt, and appropriately matching black and white converse tennis shoes. I walked into the office very nervous that morning, just waiting for someone to say something. Thankfully, no one ever did.

 I began wearing my converse tennis shoes to work often, at least once a week. No one ever said a word. I was glad to have a bit of my personality back and to be honest, they are also the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn, so that was an added bonus. I think it is important to keep your sense of self when trying to incorporate yourself into the business world. After all, happy employees are productive employees and that improves everyone’s bottom line.