Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Career

Today I went to work. Not a big deal, right? I go to work most days. But today was different. Today marked the first day of the last stage of my training.

That's right folks. For the next three years* (excepting vacation time and a couple of months) I will be doing what I signed up to do. And, if today is any indication, making an absolute mess of it.

I was overwhelmed all day long. Any of the individual issues I had to deal with would have been no big deal, but all together I was SWAMPED. Everytime I thought I was about to drain the marsh, somebody backed up another truckful of alligators. I moved at just shy of a sprint for eight straight hours (stopping only briefly to enjoy the lovely repast that The Wife packed for me) and managed to do a sub-par job with my best effort.

Despite that, all my bosses swear up and down that I'm doing great. So that's good. They maintain that I'm supposed to feel overwhelmed at this point, that the training program is four years long for a reason, I'll improve with practice, blah, blah, blah. Of course, if I was the sort of person who listened when people complimented me, I wouldn't have gotten this far in my career.

All that being said, I can't stop grinning. This was a good day.


*The Wife points out that it's a fairly long stage. But long stages are one of the things she loves about me.