Laurabelle's Blog

Last Thursday was the one-year anniversary of my first day of work at KCLS. I don't want to bore anyone with tales of Oh, when I were a wee intern, but I think it's really remarkable to look back on the blog entry about my first day of work and to realize how much I've changed in a fairly short timespan.

I was so dumbstruck by my workplace. I'd never worked in a place with cubicles before, and what's more, I had my own cubicle and even my own phone!

For the first time in my life, I'm going to have a work phone! I've been cubicle-ized!

Of course, no one called me on that phone for months, and I think it was November before I ever had a message on my voice mail. November was when I started taking on my own roles and responsibilities as The Woman Who Knows Recall. (Prior to then, I'd been sort of Meg's appendage, her right-hand woman. Being Meg's right hand was great, but no one ever called up the hand. They just talked to Meg.)

Mostly people email me, which is great because then I flag their messages with colors and even set reminders so that Outlook harasses me about getting stuff done. But there's the occasional phone message that comes at 3:20 on Thursday afternoon that I don't get until Tuesday morning because I'd just left the office, and I never think to check my messages from home because I almost never have messages. It's just frequent enough to be irritating. Not that I'm irritated at people for calling me if they're more comfortable with that mode of communication, but it's distinctly less efficient for me than email.

But people call me, and sometimes they leave messages, and then I have to call them back. And I'll tell you a secret: I'm one of those freaks who doesn't like phones because I don't know what's going to be on the other end. I had to get used to answering my work phone (Hi, this is Laura), and then I had to get used to calling people back. And for what it's worth, email is a little bit the same; I'm more careful about my wording and such when emailing an unknown person. Email is easier than phone because I get to take my time.

I feel like a dork for admitting my fears online, but I've really come a long way. Years and years ago, I used to get butterflies in my stomach about picking up the phone and dialing the number of a friend I'd never called before, because I didn't know who'd be on the other end. For that matter, I used to be nervous and shy about ordering food in restaurants because I thought the waitperson would laugh at me (why, I don't know—fear is not terribly logical). I'm over that too.

I'm getting better at dealing with unknowns, and as I look back and recognize that, I become less nervous about future unknowns. I've handled the past, and I can handle the future as well.

Big unknown: Will I get the SPL job? I'll find out eventually, and in the meantime, I'm dealing with my butterflies. It's all part of learning to be professional.