River Brown

Today was strange, I mean STRANGE. It was my first day on the job and instead of heading off into the direction of a school, I set sail in the direction of the district office where I proceeded to sit in a “cube.” Oh my, this is going to take some getting used to. I would have liked to have been able to twiddle my thumbs, but I actually had tons to do! I had to update my email, complete a PPT, read up on the standards, look up stuff on the web (all work related), organize some materials, learn where the darn pencil sharpener was located, find the closet with the “treats”given at PD sessions…ugh the list goes on.
Is it just me or is the first day of any new job, strange? You don’t feel the rhythm, the beat of the day, you are unsure (like when you do a new dance I suppose), hesitant, and just darn useless. I can’t be the only one who has these feelings right? I swear I felt this way on my first day of teaching (yup felt useless then too). And the worst part is that while you are trying to figure out what to do, everyone else around you already has the rhythm down, so they’re barking orders, moving around the copy machines like fairies, everything just flows (except for you cause you are most likely in the way of all this beautiful synchrony).
And to make matters worse, you don’t know diddly squat! Strangers come up and ask where so and so’s office is, and you have no idea! You don’t even know where the damn coffee is located! Now that is really a feeling of knowing you are useless. But hell at least I knew where the bathroom was located! I guess I can figure out this stuff tomorrow, I will add it to my to do list, along with all the other little details that I will need to learn (like who NOT to greet in the morning and who to always smile at…).
Nothing better than feeling like a complete idiot on the first day of the job…