Barefoot in the Real World
STRANGER THAN FICTION by Jeneen R. Garcia Published in Sun.Star Cebu in 2002/2003 When I graduated, I swore I’d never take a job that would make me wear closed shoes. Let me put it this way: I’m what you would call “in perpetual beach mode”. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always preferred tank tops to t-shirts, shorts and billowy skirts to jeans, sandals (or better yet, bare feet) to sneakers…you get the drift. This is a tropical country--why should I suffer in the heat for some 400-year old dress code imported from Europe? During those last few months in college, people around campus were in corporate (pronounced corprit) clothing, going to corprit job interviews at high-rise, corprit buildings. Our placement office held seminars on power-dressing--how the right shoes, suit (earth tones, not black, and never pastels, or you’ll look like a pushover) and stripes (nothing too aggressive) could get you that big, fat paycheck. I said to myself that if a comp...