Back to being the new girl


As many people who know me will know well, I have had many jobs on my way to finding one I'd call a career rather than something that pays the bills. I have always had a general idea of what I would like to do but life is full of stumbling blocks and its taken me a while to get there. I have worked; in hotels, as a childminder. au-pair (same thing but live in), in a video rental shop, electrical store, many call centres and finally a bookstore (hence the blog name) before finding my way to work I really loved. 

 I have been working in a social care like environment since January 2015 and I knew almost immediately that I had made the right choice. This was a relief because otherwise I would have spent those four years in college for nothing.
Sure I had stress and frustrations and utterly banal dreams where I was still at work completing mundane tasks (presumably stress induced) but overall I take great satisfaction in my work and in the fact that my care might be having some sort of positive impact, no matter how small, on a clients life. The last year I have been doing most of my hours caring for one person which was great and in a way I'd probably have stayed there forever but I knew I had to move on as there was no room for progression within the job and I really wanted to put my degree to use. After many different interviews I was offered a position in a residential centre for adults with intellectual disabilities and two months later it was time to leave. With such a long gap between my interview and actually starting it didn't really feel like I was ever going to leave and so I was able to just be mildly excited about the possibilities the new job would bring without really dealing with the fact that I'd actually be quite sad saying goodbye.
When my last day came around I think I held it together pretty well until I got into my car to drive home and then I will admit I cried, a whole lot, the entire way home. This probably did not make for the safest driving. I suppose I would probably be in the wrong line of work if I didn't feel sad leaving.

 Its been almost a week now but it feels like so much longer as I decided there was no time to sit around and wallow and instead arrived at my new job the following day, so far I'm enjoying it but still adjusting. There's lots of different houses with lots of different service users and so far I have only been to two. There's so many names to remember and different rules and routines especially because I have no experience working in a big organisation like this. We have a super fancy finger print scanner that we use to log in each day but really I feel a little bit lost without my hours on my phone and keep feeling like I am forgetting something because I am no longer using my phone to log in and out of work. I am working the same sort of hours but I start a half hour earlier and its a bit further away so I am dragging myself out of bed that bit earlier and its taking some getting used to, I am sure I will be fine after another week or so. We get breaks, lots of breaks which is new to me and great but it almost feels like we get too many or perhaps I will adjust to this in time as well. I have been wearing tracksuits to work as its either that or trousers ( I really don't like trousers) but I didn't have any before I started so I had to run out and buy a few and I have discovered they are quite chafey on the legs. 

 Overall though its been a good change and however hard I am glad I made the move. Hopefully soon all the strange new things will become my new normal and I wont be the new girl any more.

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