The Waters Have Settled

Today, I have reached a milestone that I've been waiting to reach for about two months now. It's taken longer than I expected, but I've done it.

I, Jeremy Nelson, finally feel totally comfortable at my job.

When I was an intern at Kurtis Productions through the University of Dreams Program (Now Dream Careers), I was told during our orientation session that it usually takes interns anywhere from one to two weeks to finally feel totally comfortable in their new roles. Naturally, I expected that to carry over into my new job at the Department of Transportation. Wrong!

It's a little weird, because I'm used to working in big open spaces and not rows and rows of cubicles. At first, I felt a little closed off rom the rest of the office, partly because my cubicle is in a corner in the very back of the office. I knew I wasn't going to get an office or anything, but I didn't think I'd be this far away from people, either.

Don't get me wrong; the people at my job are freindly and quite easy to get along with. But when I have to leave my cubicle to complete a task of some sort, I only really have time to say "Hi!" and "How are you?" because I want to stay on task. Of course, that makes this whole ordeal my fault in the end for not sticking around longer, because I'm under the influence that everybody else has important work to do, not time to jab with the college student.

Of course, assumptions are terrible things, and I soon realized that people here really don't hesitate to take the time out to ask you how your day is going or how your life is going in general. Unfortunately, it took me two months to really understand that. Well, late is better than never, right?

If you're at a job and feel alone or shut out, make a conscious effort to get up and move around the office in your few spare minutes. Don't hesitate to actually talk to the people who you say hello to on a daily basis- you'll find that it means something to you and them. I wouldn't turn it into a full on conversation, but 90 seconds to trade weekend stories goes a long way.