I bought a suit back in May, when I quit my job.
It was one of the only items of clothing I actually bought at my highest weight – I hated admitting how big I’d gotten so I just kept wearing my too-small clothes. But I knew I needed something that fit and looked good if I was going to be going out on job interviews and expecting people to take me seriously.
The summer sucked – I forgot how bad it can be to unemployed, and I just felt stressed and depressed all the time. Not to mention that I was broke. So needless to say my food choices were pretty dismal: popcorn, mac and cheese, Minute rice with cheese slices, and lots and lots of toast.
I wore the suit a few times over the summer. Every time I got a call about an interview, I’d have a day or two of panic, wondering if the suit would still fit. I’d avoid trying it on but eventually I’d have to, and luckily, although the suit got a wee bit snug over the course of the summer, it never stopped fitting completely.
I wore that suit when I interviewed for my current position, and once I had the job I hung the suit up in the closet and forgot about it.
Fast forward to now. I had a big day on Tuesday, with lots of meetings with higher-ups, and photo-taking at a high-profile event. So I thought “I want to look professional today, so I’ll wear my suit.”
Well, you know where I’m going with this, right? The suit completely did not fit. I was swimming in it! I could take the pants off without even undoing them, and the butt was sagging out like crazy. The jacket used to be snug enough that I could only do up one button, but now when I pulled it closed, I could overlap it by a good couple of inches. Frankly, I looked ridiculous. It was awesome.
I had to ditch the idea of wearing the suit to work that day, but I still went into those meetings feeling confident and good about myself, even though I was just wearing the same black cardigan I wear almost every day.
