Playing with fire: A dark game of chess and checkers with my bosses

Liz Liz could never quite grasp who or what she truly was. She always felt like a misfitting puzzle piece, never quite fitting in anywhere in this million and one puzzle mural depiction of life. She was born to a working class family in a highly patriarchal society, which ensured that women knew their place and what was expected of them. She worked hard to build her persona as the perfect, respectable, religious, straight woman. She ensured that she married well, into the right family, with the right type of lineage... pure German off course. It is still strange how after all this time that we still want to group ourselves in our traditional clans of the old country. She stood on her bedroom balcony overlooking the beautiful night scenery of the valley and the suburbs below her mansion on the side of mountain, slowly sipping her red wine while contemplating her life. She felt like a remnant of a bygone era. Had she not done enough? She studied, received her gender appropriate degree in one of the few career paths that were allowed to women... teaching. She got married after obtaining her honours degree, had two beautiful boys and worked hard for many years. She was in her mid forties, and it seemed that the world was changing around her so quickly that she wasn't quite sure that she would be able to keep up. It was in the last few dying years of the 20th century and the world was rapidly changing around her, like a bad roller-coaster ride that she just wanted to get off of. Society was charging and starting to shake and rattle of the chains of patriarchy. She felt like she was caught in the middle of it all! (She sighed deeply, raising her hand to her face and rubbing her eyes). She knew that she had to change the direction of her life to stop the whirlwind that was badgering at her door. No one truly likes change, especially her, she was a creature of habit. However, she realised that the only way that she would move up in her career is if she took a leap of faith and opened her own private school and turning her back on the government educational sector. This thought elated and scared her at the same time. A lifetime of conforming to society's expectations of her, left her weak and unsure of herself, doubting that true beastly power that laid just beneath the surface. Finding your inner wolf is a hardy battle that takes a long journey of self-discovery to win. But as a true German decendent from those hardy Germanic tribes from long ago, when the old gods were still worshipped and we embraced our animal instincts even our inner werewolf, she would too. However she knew that even if she had all the charm, strength and money in the world she would still need to have strong, intimidating, powerful man to get the business started. Society may have started to change but women were still not seen as authority figures and leaders, in public that is...