Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes…

In less than 12 hours I’ll be starting my new job. Argh! Yeah, a part of me is starting to freak out freaking out. The other part of me is still rather laid back and optimistic. Let’s see which part will have won after a night of possibly restless sleep :-)
I’m exaggerating a bit, I think. Yes, I’m nervous, because it’s going to be a huge change for me. Yes, the inner critic in me is doubting myself, but I think I’ve got the critic mostly in check. I was given this job for a reason. Well, not in a “purposeful meaning of life, choosen by a higher power” sense… Ok, I guess, I’m watching too much “The Newsroom”. Just saw the episodes about the mock debate and Maggie questioning Bachmann’s “God told me to become president” statement *g*. But I’m getting off track here, so… the guys who hired me, chose me for this job, because they obviously thought I was the right one. And I’d like to trust their judgement on this, because my own judgement about my capabilities sometimes is way off, in a bad way, so… yeah, I was given this job for a reason :-)

The last few weeks have been insanely busy (except for the trip to Scotland) with work stuff for the old job and other stuff I had to get done before I can start this new job tomorrow. So I didn’t really have too much time to worry about the new job and it’s just now over the last few days sinking in that a new chapter of my life is about to start tomorrow. And I’m definitely planning to enjoy it.

This new chapter also already brought on some changes in my life. One was that I’m the owner of a car now and that I turned in my monthly public transport travelcard on Monday. I paid for a travelcard with unlimited use for the public transport in our metro area for the last 18 years, which is almost half my life. It felt really weird to hand it in, but it would be stupid to continue to pay for it, now that I have to pay for a car and gas as well, because I need the car to get to work. So I will use the car to get to other places as well. But the transition from regulary using public transport to regulary using my car still feesl a bit weird. Instead of looking for the next bus stop or to research time tables, now I have to look for parking spaces and research which public parking garage has the best deal/lowest fares. It is someting getting used to.

But I’m not the only one who has to adjust to my new mode of transportation. Last week, Bro3 (whos car I had borrowed for my activies for the last 18 years) told me, that when our mom had told him I’d been to the movies the night before, he was wondering for a moment, how I had gotten there, because I surely hadn’t come by to borrow his car ;-)
And whenever I came back into our town these past few days driving my own car and I was passing the street, which leads to my Mom’s and Bro3’s place, I would recognize the novelty of me not having to turn into this street, but continuing on the main road until it was time to turn into the street leading to my neighbourhood. When I came back from my friend last night though, I obviously was lost in thought and had already switched on the turn signal lights, when I realized my mistake ;-) I’m wondering how long it will take me to naturally drive past this street without even thinking that I used to have to turn into it whenever I was driving a car…

Earlier this week, after I had finally had a date with HR department to sign my contract, I drove to the administration building in which I will be working and circled the block to see where I could park my car for free the whole day, because they don’t have parking on site. There is a pay parking lot across the street, but I’m not sure if I’m willing to rent a space there, if there are enough free spaces on the street within of a 8 – 10 minutes walk. I might be unwilling to give up 15 – 20 minutes of my spare free time to walk from my car to the office. But I also might be willing to use these few minutes outside to mentally prepare for the day’s work or to unwind after work. I guess I just have to wait and find out…

There is not much more I can write about my new work life just yet, because it’s going to be a huge change from the old job, so I don’t really know what to expect. Or I do know what to expect (other tasks, of course, a lot more colleagues etc), but I don’t know how I will react to all of it. I will report back next weekend :-)