First Day on the Job

My first day of work was today. I definitely liked living in California much better when I was unemployed :) ... j/k ... But first-day stress is normal and I just need to have a positive attitude. The girl who was in my position previously was only in it for 6 months before being promoted (largely a product of timing of course, as there was a large round of in-house promotions all at once), but at least I know mobility is possible. The most frustrating part of my position that I can tell will be distinguishing who in the department gets what call or appointment. In other words, if an applicant says "I want to build a swimming pool" or "I just bought a parcel of land" ... I have to determine (eventually on my own) who needs to field those calls and which section of our department needs to be concerned with each issue. Sounds simple enough once I get the hang of it, but it's frustrating in the meantime since every situation is different and the girl training me can't possibly touch on all the different potential scenarios.

I can't wait until I gain residency in CA so I can take some cheap computer classes. I'm really buying into this "career goal" of mine to eventually become a self-employed web designer specifically for non-profit organizations and churches. That way, I don't need a specific degree to join a prestigious company but rather just the skills I need for my purposes (i.e. the jr. college's "web certificate" might suffice). I can easily build up my portfolio by doing some "freebies" for churches I know and then go from there. Perhaps it's an idealistic, unachievable dream, but at least FOR ONCE I have a dream/career goal!

I was just talking to my mom about this - as a high school student when people said "you can do anything you put your mind to" and things of that sort, I don't know why I didn't believe them. Or maybe I believed them, but I just never knew what all that "anything" entailed. I was so limited by my own experiences and shortcomings that I never thought outside of the box. When I first entered college, I had never owned my own computer or taken a computer class before, so I was afraid of them, yet now they are my favorite thing and I feel I do fairly well with them ... so had I not been so afraid back then, had someone actually pushed me in that direction - or in ANY ambitious, applicable direction - had someone actually leveled with me and said "even though you feel inadequate, believe me, so did everyone else at first in your position ... you CAN do it!!!" ... I feel I could be somewhere so much "better" right now. Still, I can't dwell in the past and since I repeatedly say that I don't want to be in administration for the rest of my life, one action I can take to change my fate is to take classes and intentionally pursue a new direction. And by writing it down here, maybe I'll even have a few people to hold me accountable to this :) Because I know that like so many people, I have a tendency to get excited about something and then have it peter out over time ...