As I drove through the Hague with my mother today we passed a stately white building in the city’s diplomatic neighborhood that brought back memories of the time I had spent there as a receptionist.
I can’t even really recall how long I worked there all together, but I think it was just for a couple of months during two consecutive summer holidays and after that every now and then when they needed someone extra. It was a law office specialized in corporate law with, if I recall correctly, about ten lawyers and half a dozen secretaries.
My work consisted of making coffee for clients, ordering flowers for special occasions, sorting the incoming and outgoing mail and transferring phone calls. I think figuring out how the phone worked was the most complicated part of the whole job. It was great. I got a lot of studying done there, and they were fine with that as long as the few tasks I had were done correctly.
And yes, even here there were lessons to be learned.
- Marble entry halls are pretty but they are also cold and echoey
- I kind of like making fancy coffee with good Italian espresso machines
- Flowers are actually very expensive
- So is (good) wine
- Neither flowers nor wine are gifts that make me particularly happy.
- Receptionists are invisible to some people
- Lawyers are (often) full of themselves and cling to ideas of status and hierarchy to extremes that are almost funny. To me. Not to them. Never to them. Nooo.
- All though I had to come to this same conclusion again later on in life, I had already found out during this job that I don’t enjoy having to dress “professionally”.
- I could still pull it off though.
- The Hague is a pretty interesting town
Nothing life changing, as you can see, but it’s still part of my life’s path, so might as well share!
My eldest brother is like that, but not with music (even though he did play the trumpet for a while, in his teenage years). He has 
Epiphany 