To paraphrase an underplayed song: 'I don't like my job...I love it.'
Never one to enthuse too much about anything other than a good defensive midfielder, you might be surprised to read that.
I love my family, I love my girlfriend, I love my friends and, one weekend out of 36, I love my football club - but my job, really? Let me tell you why.
I have come a long way in a month and a half. Only a matter of weeks ago did the chronic worrying about what was on the other side of 'Brodies personnel only' signs leave me shaking in my freshly buffed shoes. Now I walk into my office, say my good mornings and get on with my job like it's the most normal thing in the world.
And of course it's normal. As a slightly frayed person who let me bend their ear before I started said, I am not the first person to start a new job - and I won't be the last. As someone in a slightly more sympathetic mood said to me before I started, how I was feeling was perfectly normal.
Okay, so things aren't always a breeze. On a daily basis I come up against something I've never dealt with before and that sometimes spooks me. To put a more positive spin on that, I have had to learn very quickly that my comfort zone is more like a minefield. If I watch where I'm going and stay alert, things are generally going to be fine.
And that's where my colleagues come in. I have been placed with a great team for the next 8 months (T-minus 6.5 months actually) and help is never far away when I need it. It also helps that I'm comfortable with the area of law I'm practicing in just now, with all of those hours pouring over discussion papers and reports about property law just about being worth it - just about I stress.
So the work is fine and the people are great. What else? Getting up is a bind, but nothing focuses the mind more than avoiding the busy buses in the morning. I have a bus of choice, a seat of choice and there are at least five regulars who, if they slept-in occasionally and missed the bus, wouldn't be sorely missed. I think that's called a normal commute.
The only thing that's not normal about my work life is how picky I am about what I wear. Over the last 2 months I have returned a suit, multiple shirts and spent at least an hour a weekend shopping for work clothes. I wake up in a cold sweat occasionally thinking about French cuffs and inside leg measurements - a dream that may have even stumped Sigmund. That's not normal.
So my concluding remark on going to work? It's all normal, even when it's not.
As always, thanks for reading. If you're interested in reading more about what I get up to at work - and I'm sure you are - then I wrote my first post on my firm's trainee blog a couple of weeks ago. You can read that here - only if you're interested mind!
P.S. it was a UB40 reference, if you're still wondering. And yes, I really don't like cricket.
