The New Kid

I began a new job this week. Starting a new job always leaves me a little off balance, and I've started more than my fair share of new jobs (One of these days I'll outline them all for you. It's a full time job to list them, anyway). For me, the start is always mix of thrill and trepidation, anticipation and apprehension. Who wants to be The New Kid, anyway? It's much nicer to be The One on the Inside. It's a challenge to enter into a new environment, balancing the appropriate amount of humility to show I'm not a jackass know-it-all (when I sure as heck don't know it all) with the poise to instill confidence that I can do the job I was hired to do. My intuition is in full gear--not only do I need to learn the basic facts of the new position, but I've also got to quickly recognize the more subtle things: What's the corporate culture? Who are the formal, and sometimes more importantly, informal leaders? If the boss' door is shut, does that mean stay away or c'mon in, just knock first? And where in the world is the bathroom?

I'm not turning my first week on the job into some grand allegory. I'm just saying it's a challenge on a lot of levels, and exhausting in a unique way that comes back with each new position. Maybe one of these days I should stop starting.