First Day

How many first days have I had over the years.  Let’s see…

• First day (of my life)
• First day of kindergarten
• First day of middle school
• First day of high school
• First day of college
• First day of my teaching career
• First day of many jobs
• First day of this job

Today was the first day of my new job.  You think after 15 jobs and 37 years of working I would be an expert at first day on the new job kind of days.  I’m not.

All day long I kept losing my focus.  I would be talking to a new co-worker, or to someone on the phone and I felt disconnected.  I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on with me.

Then it hit me.  This is going to sound crazy, but it was the lighting in the offices of the department where I was working.  My previous employer had very bad lighting.  I had a desk lamp, but the over head lighting was very poor.  I actually liked it.  Too bright has it’s own set of problems.

When I spent eight hours a day or longer in one environment and the new environment is much brighter, it affected me in a very strange way.  The brightness got in the way of my focus and concentration.  Now isn’t that strange.

I am sure I will get used to the new lighting…it just might take a few days.

On a totally unrelated topic.  The weather has been cold enough the last couple of days to wear winter coats…woohooooooo!  Can you tell I am a Midwestern girl at heart.