I believe we all remember our first day at work, like our first day at school or college, our first moments of anything new that is supposed to change our lives.
That feeling of enthusiasm merged with fear, those big dreams mixed with previous disappointment or other people’s bad experiences, hundreds of thoughts and questions of what we wish, what we expect, and what will prove if this was the right choice for us. Will we fit in? Will we be loved? Gain friends? Will we learn? Is this the career meant for us? Will we ever need to change it? Is it a good place? Good environment? And many more.
Those questions or thoughts probably will keep rolling in your mind for a while and some of them will keep recurring forever, but it’s not a bad thing to be always wondering about choices in your lives. It’s not a myth to always wish for the best.
If we look back to our first day at work, whether it was a month ago, a year ago or years ago, we would feel how different we have become. Yes, even one month could change us. Work life makes us evolve even if we don’t notice it.
We are no longer just students; we are responsible for tasks that will affect other people’s work, customers or the place we work for. We are required to work with different characters and not always by choice. We learn new things, some of them we will like and others we won’t, but we will have to learn and work with such things and people. We are faced with challenges of time, work, communication, tasks and different pressures. All of that will certainly change us.
So amazingly our first steps at work became our first steps to growing both personally and professionally. The person who was so worried about the smallest details is now the one who is certain about each of them; the one who feared each new task is now waiting desperately for a new thing to learn; the one who could hardly communicate with colleagues or managers is the one having ground rules for the way communication should be. As we grow, we see the progress of wondering which decision will be best becoming much easier and our vision becoming sharper, while the fear of not fitting in changes to the fear of “what’s next”.
Of course, growth, development and experience don’t always have to be positive. Some paths do affect us negatively, or delay the way we should be growing. But one way or another, even those negative instances are lessons for us to learn and know what we can’t do, can’t accept, or can’t be part of.
Whether your first day of work held good memories, whether you hate the place you are in now, or you are just stable where you are, whether you worked in one place or many, whether you love your job or for you it’s just a job, the puzzle pieces can always be destroyed and rearranged. You can always make a new first day at work. You can always start over.
By: Yasmeen Lasheen
Photography: Mahmoud Mansi
EDITOR: Nada Adel Sobhi