Unfamiliar Familiar

As I mentioned in my last post, I started my new position as the school counselor at my school this week.  I was so excited to start this position as it was what I went to Grad school for and what I have been working for for the last five years.  It finally happened!  

I love a lot about where I work.  I feel comfortable when I get to work.  I love walking into my classroom and seeing my students.  I love when they yell at me across campus.  I love that I am friends with my coworkers and we laugh so hard we cry.  I even love making my classroom look pretty.  I can complain about the kids or the work load but I usually love the comfort that going through familiar patterns brings to me when I am at work. 

My classroom at Christmas 2011

Yesterday when I pulled into work I was not met with the familiar that I grew to love, but a load of unfamiliar.  The school is in some serious transition these days.  Everyone around the campus is stressed and seems unhappy. 

The reason for the stress is that half of the school is moving this summer.  The school does not own the land and the buildings the school uses.  I know that the last 10 years or so have been difficult for the school as they have leased and tried to purchase the land.  Last summer the land went up for sale and we thought we were going to walk away finally owning the land.  

The first day of school all the teachers came back to the news that the school was bought by a Buddhist Educational program.  We had the year on the land and we needed to find somewhere else for the future.  Needless to say last year was one huge anxiety attack as we worked with the possibility of not having a job hanging over our heads for a whole year.  Finally in MAY we found a solution and were able to rest assured that the school would still be open. 

When the school year ended we all had to pack up our classrooms and hope our things ended up in the right places. Part of the school is staying on campus, but everything has been turned around.  

When I pulled in on Monday I had no idea where everyone was at in the process.  I parked my car and did not know where I was supposed to go.  I found the new offices and looked around for others.  I had no idea which office was going to be mine and no one was in on time.  I hung out in the teachers lounge like a loser for an hour. 

At least I can take selfies to entertain myself.

I finally was shown my new glamorous office and I was really let down.  I am not sure if I expected fanfare, a parade, a hello, or just a nice professional office, but whatever it was my expectations were not even close to being met.  

It seems that the month I was going laying on a beach in Hawaii was a month that my new office was everyone else's dumping grounds.  Have a huge file cabinet that you don't want to clutter up your office?  Leave it in Erica's office.  Have a travel coffee mug that has not been cleaned out for a month and has become a breading ground for fruit flies?  Leave it in Erica's office.  Have a stack of papers you just don't want to file?  Leave a huge pile in Erica's office, she will do it when she comes back.  Have janky ripped chairs that you want to replace with new chairs?  Give Erica your gross ones.  Alright, this may be a tad dramatic, really only a tad, but all of these things are what was waiting for me on Monday.

Please enjoy the lovely pictures of my office. 

My awesome, welcoming door.

The beauty of other people's clutter.

I must say that my favorite part of all this was that someone left a box of diet bars on my desk.  I didn't see them until someone told me they were there.  It made for some awkward conversation throughout the day.  People I never met would ask me how much weight I lost.  I am happy to say that I was sufficiently paranoid and creeped out.  Good thing someone pointed it out to me at the end of the day so I could stop thinking my eating habits were being tracked. 

Thanks Medifast for the awkward day.

Today I went into work with a renewed spirit.  I have control over a lot that happens to me and I can handle this too.  I control my attitude and I am a positive happy person.  I can stay positive and happy and hope that my lightness will rub off on those around me.  If not, that is their problem.

I will make my office pretty and welcoming.  I already cleaned the coffee mug, and almost threw up.  Things will still be a challenge at my school, but the first day is over and my expectations were blown up so it can only go up from here.  I have hope that the now unfamiliar will become familiar soon. 

love! Erica