We’ve all had our first days – good and bad.
I bet some of yours have been memorable?
I remember:
My first day as a 13-year-old in a new school. My form teacher made me sit on an upside-down bin as there weren’t enough seats.
The first day of my new business. My ‘guaranteed client’ (who was booking me for two days a week and covering all the bills) pulled out on day one.
My first day as a father. Eeek!
Muddled brains and not quite knowing what you’re supposed to be doing, being thrown in at the deep end and terrified to ask for help are how we all feel in new situations. After difficult first days though, it always gets better.
Everyone has Eeek! moments on their first days.
Knowing the fear is only temporary, it surprises me that we don’t put ourselves out of our comfort zones a little more often and experience the joy of more first days.
I’d love to know your experiences of first days; please leave a comment below.
Extra points if you’re a first-time commenter.
Be Brilliant!
Michael
PS I’m inspired to write this newsletter by our new starter Nia who had her first day on Monday. She’s received lots of lovely messages of support and only one ‘clever chap’ who described her taking the role as ‘must be mad’. I think she’s going to be brilliant.
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I cried on my first day at school, so the teacher put me under her desk with a sad boy next to me. But then having read my book, you’d know that already : )
I’m on the 9th day of a new work role and very much still at the ‘Muddled brains and not quite knowing what you’re supposed to be doing, being thrown in at the deep end and terrified to ask for help’ stage!
This blog was a much-needed reminder for me that this feeling IS only temporary.
My first memory of life was when I was four in a pram my mum was wheeling me down Ilford High St during World War 2. Then we heard a doodlebug coming over, and then you couldn’t hear it! Silence meant it was descending. My mum chose an immediate shop doorway for shelter. The doodlebug bomb blew up 100 yards further down the High St. Had she not chosen that doorway we would have died. My first memory of life… and escape from war into safety onwards… till now.
First week in a new job when I was 22. Had spent Monday to Thursday trying to work out what was going on and then on the Friday I was dressed as Andy Pandy and collecting money for Children in Need in Cannock town centre. Muddled doesn’t describe it but things will always get easier.
My first PE lesson as a teacher. I took a group of twenty-eight 4 year olds into the hall, intending to line them up in 4 groups of 7 so they could pass a ball along the line. I very quickly realised that this would not be possible…. the children wandered about aimlessly, bumping into each other. So I started to sing, “Oh, the Grand Old Duke of York,” and the children followed me in a line as we marched out of the hall. The children sat down, still singing, and I gently led them one by one to where I wanted them to stand. We all got “sprayed” with an invisible freeze spray until I said the magic word to start the game. PHEW!
Loved reading these. The one that sprung to my mind was first time mum in the RVI Newcastle with my new bundle of joy – and no idea what to do. I gathered him up and wandered in a daze down to the midwife station and said “I think he’s dirtied his nappy” and burst into tears. Overwhelmed, exhausted and terrified were the emotions. But we got there James and I!!
My first time as a Corner Ref in an international kickboxing competition was incredibly nerve-wracking. Just before the first fight, the main, very experienced Centre Ref came over to me and said, “It’s your first time and you’re gonna make wrong calls – loads of them. Just make them with confidence!”
On reflection, it’s sound advice for life in general, really!
Day 1 of one role was a training course over in the US. The intro’s went around the room, people stated how many years they’d worked for the company. Most had been there many years. To the amusement of all I looked at my watch and cheerfully announced I’d been with the company for 15-minutes.
My first day at work as an apprentice engineer I was walking down the machine shop looking in awe at the massive machine tools they had, they were massive as the company made machinery for the steel works, suddenly a big rotund rough looking bloke in oily overalls appeared in front of me & blocked my way “You’ll be joining union lad” he said in quite a forceful way, “errrr yes i think so” I replied not quite as forcefully.
Scared the life out of me, good news is I joined the union, I’m still an engineer 40+ years later & Eric the union man was quite a nice bloke once I got to know him.
On my first day working for the then Cancer Research Campaign as a new Area Manager, I got a totally unexpected call that my husband’s pacemaker had run out of battery & he needed to be admitted to the Heart Hospital in London urgently! Not the best start – flying out the door – to take him to London but things could only get better 🙂
Ha ha that was my first comment Michael 🙂
F First day I found out I was adopted it felt like being hit hard in the solar plexus, couldn’t breathe
In 1970 I started a new job as a ‘silver service waitress’ in a hotel in southern Italy. I was 19 and from the UK (couldn’t speak the language). With no training I was given a big spoon and fork, and a huge silver bowl full of spaghetti! The plan was to get it from the bowl to the plate without spilling it on the guest! I dug in, lifted the spoon and fork with the dangling spaghetti, which was floating in mid air in terror, and finally landing unskilfully in the centre of the plate.I did it! But by the end of the evening my uniform was covered in tomato and my hair in spaghetti. The guests were clean and well fed.
Many years later I emigrated to Canada. My first day in an IT company was nerve wracking. It was very posh, the building a beautiful skyscraper. My previous job in the UK had been as a secretary in a cattle market) Anyway, I mustered up a beaming smile as I was introduced to my two bosses. “This is Ed” my colleague said (I shook hands) “and this is Ed” I turned to the other guy and without thinking I said “well two ‘Ed’s are better than one” and to my horror I started laughing at my own joke. They just stood there staring at me as I became more hysterical (nerves!) so embarrassing.
First day of high school. Walked. As the four-story red brick building loomed, my nervousness was on two fronts: “normal”, will I fit in?; and familial (my siblings preceded me), will I make my family proud?
Having decided to go to Uni at the age of 50 (!!) I walked into the Lecture Room to be greeted by a sudden hush! Turned out my fellow students (none of whom where over 35) thought I was the Lecturer!!!
First day back at school less than a week after a traumatic life-changing experience which I was forbidden to mention to anyone. Couldn’t bring myself to talk to anyone – I felt as if I’d landed on Mars.
My first day working in a high secure unit for some of the UK’s most difficult to manage children and young people, who had committed heinous crimes (murder, rape, arson with intent to endanger life and so on). I was 21 and fresh from my first degree. Niaive doesn’t get near describing me!
I thought I’d been recruited to work as a kitchen assistant – a pot washer. I was collected from the reception area by a lovely lady who declared..’No, you’re not. You’re working with my team in the unit…with the YP’s…’ when I told her.
As we made our way into the locked environment, I imagined all sorts of monsters lurking behind the remotely controlled doors….think ‘Silence of the Lambs’…Hannibal Lecter type characters. I was terrified!
How disappointed was I when we reached our final destination and was introduced to 10 quite sweet kids aged 10-16. Where were the fang-bearing, knife wielding murderers…thee deranged arsonists…
My first day as a fully-fledged dog owner I had temporarily housed my older daughter’s golden lab when she rented with her boyfriend for a while then she went in for a mortgage and had Goldie back I really missed her when she went so we had a 5 months old black labby we were told needed a rehome it was quite amusing the next day when we trotted out with a different coloured dog and as ironically we walked him back with us on the 31st of October I just couldn’t resist when asked saying a spell was cast and he’s turned into a black one
Age 10, Dad was transfffered over 100 miles and we relocated. My new school was a boys school. I was the only girl I year 6. My sister in year 5 was lucky to have3 girls in her class. I experienced my first sexual harassment from a fat boy who made sexual gestures at me. On the way home, he way laid me and sprang towards me as I went through a short cut. I was a fast runner and got away. First thing in the morning, I went to the staff room and told the headmaster in front of all the horrified teachers what gestures that nasty had been making at me and how he had waddled behind me in a vain attempt to catch me. Those were the days of caning. Let’s say that his swollen butt warned his member not to even think about it. No boy dared Eve stand within a yard of me. Yippee.