From Fear to Fabulous

I don’t know if you can understand me.  Most of my life (since I was a teenager) I have had issues.  It started when I attended 8^th grade and I had to go to Junior High School, a bigger school that merged 5 elementary schools together.  That’s when my phobias kicked in.  I don’t think I was afraid before the first day of school but having to ride a different bus with 8^th thru 12^th graders was intimidating, then I didn’t know where to go to get to my classes and suddenly there were so many strangers.

Once I graduated high school, I had to find a real job.  It wasn’t pretty.  I had no clue what to do.  That sounds so lame but I was stuck and didn’t know what to do to make it in the real world.  My sister Judy let me watch her son over the summer and then she found me a volunteer job.  That gave me some skills and confidence to get a real job.  It’s been a rough and rocky road ever since those days.

Fast forward to me now, here I am in my late 40’s and I have felt the mindless terror recently that I call “gotta find a job.”  My husband gingerly suggested that I call a local temp service last week.  I say gingerly because during this process he knows I can burst out crying without warning.  I called them the next day to make my husband happy – not me – but him.  I even went to the appointment and filled out lots of paperwork.  I met with their job finder who was very friendly and receptive to how nervous I was.

Well, she called and sent me to an interview on Thursday.  I worked my first day yesterday.  Good thing they started me on Friday because I would have worried myself sick all weekend over the new job nerves!

I just want to share pictures of my first day.  It was a very pleasant first day.  I mean they have a cat that lives there 24-7 and the bookkeeper brings her toy poodle into the office every day.  I think the pets helped calm my nerves tremendously.

My name is Sherri and I am an Introvert.  I survived another 1^st day on the job and the job hunting process.  I also have an over the top fear of the unknown (FUNK as read on The Change Blog).  I also found out that I have Ergophobia – thanks to Google Search.

But understanding more about introversion and ergophobia helped me a lot this time.  Knowing I’m not the only one in this big universe that deals with these issues helps.  I think there’s hope for me yet!  Many thanks to my loved ones for holding my hand (literally and phone-ally)

My new friend, Peaches

My new friend, Roxy

My office space