I was sixteen years old before I was ever the new girl. I never moved a day in my life (my parents still live in the house they built together when they got married nearly 30 years ago) and never transferred schools. My first experience being put into the awkward tension of not knowing the people around you was when my family decided to change churches. For me, this was a huge deal. I had been raised attending a small Christian church in Fairburn, Georgia on a regular basis. It was a second home to me and I probably spent just as much time there as I ever did my own home. And since it was so small and we were so active I knew everyone and I mean everyone. I felt like we ran the place....just kidding, but really, I had no fears of ever feeling out of place doing something. Then there's the church we switched our membership to, which was a much larger, semi-contemporary Baptist church in Palmetto, Georgia. Once we announced our last week in Fairburn I remember being very afraid in my head of being the new girl at Palmetto. This was going to be a new experience for me which I was unsure of whether it would agree with me or not. Well, as it turns out it wasn't so bad. Part of the reason we moved to Palmetto was because of all the people we already knew there from school and being involved with the church's preschool many years prior. It was an enormously easy transition. I love it there.
New girl number 2:
The second time I was a new girl doesn't really count because I was in a situation where everyone around me was new: my freshmen year of college. I was one of only two of my close friends to move away for school and that aspect seemed quite unsettling on my last night before moving to Milledgeville. However, as I'll discuss in a later blog attending Georgia College (& State University) was by far the best decision I've ever made!
New girl number 3/4/5/6:
I'm going to include the next three times I was new all in one because they are all due to the same cause: work. Number 3 is when I worked as a camp counselor the summer after my freshman year of college at a small camp where most people had been going there for years. But, I think the small, at home, family feeling is probably what made it easier to fit in. It was great. :) Number 4 was when I started working on campus my sophomore year in the International Center. I was in an office full of adults with higher education (mostly anyway). It was intimidating at times, however that was a wonderful experience I will never forget. Number 5 was when I started my first restaurant job the summer after my sophomore year. Oh Applebee's. There are too many stories to tell here so all I will say is that for the past 3 years I have been exposed to things I never would have seen/heard/experienced had I not taken that job. Many good things have come from that job (my love for one) and many bad memories have come from that job. But all-in-all it was a learning and humbling experience that really let me explore many aspects of my inner self that I was afraid to let out. It made me more comfortable to be me....for the most part. Enough of that...number 6. This is where I'm at now. Just this past week I started a new job. It's another waitressing job but at a restaurant where I only know one person. It's a small, local bar and grill type of place with college girls serving. I'm still in training but it seems to being going very well so far. The reason I decided to write about being the new girl is because of this: training to serve in this restaurant is unlike other restaurants I know of....first you start in the kitchen cooking for a week so you learn the menu before you get in front of customers and blank. Smart really. But I have yet to get to know the girls I'll be working with on the floor. I see them come in and out of the kitchen and most of them don't ask many questions of me. Some assume I'll be working in the kitchen. But I see them sometimes look at me and I can't help what wonder what they are thinking. I am the newest girl and I'm sure the ones that have been there forever are wondering what I'll be like. I can only hope that we will get along and they will like me once we are officially coworkers. We shall see.
So, there is no grand story here of some horrible new girl experience, sorry to disappoint guys. But I just think it's interesting how some people react to being a new girl. It's happened very few times for me and most were easy transitions, I know some people have horror stories (God forbid I ever have to deal with that!).
That's all for today,
Later darlings.
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