My Home Office

I got all dressed up for work today. It was truly an occasion. It was an occasion because I could go into work for the first time in seven days! Now I know it does not sound all that bad. But paint this picture in your head: you are an intern, international intern, who is all but two weeks on the job, who knows barely anybody at the company and who is NEVER THERE.
Not only does it become hard to develop a network (like we are supposed to), this way it becomes almost daunting trying to prove my worth. For a little ambitious, insecure girl like me, all I think about from my home office is ways to prove I am being a diligent, hard worker.

And riddle me this: What is a home office? I understand if you are in management that you have a separate designated spot in your house to work from. But as a student? A home office? I have ONE room. I eat there, cook there, sleep there, drink beer with my friends there. I do not have a home office. Lately, I do not think I have either a home or an office. I am stuck somewhere in between the two and the roles they bring.

Yet today, as I sat in my massive 9^th floor workplace, in my formal work clothes and with the bright warm sun hitting my face, I could not help when a small piece of me was missing my own tiny cold desk. The desk where I sat in my pyjamas. Where I ate warm lunch in silence, only two steps from my bed, and updated work socials with ‘@Home Office’. Today, @Home Office, redefined irony for me.

Rina Manjrekar (22) is an international student in the final year of her study Mechatronics at Fontys School of Engineering. She moved to the Netherlands 4 years ago from Malaysia. Here you can find her other columns for Bron.