Day 3

First day of work. I transferred through the massive home improvement company that I work for to one of their stores in the Austin area.

It actually surprised me how normal a day it was. Despite the store being composed of different people with different personalities, the way I functioned amongst them did not change. I remained direct and inquiring, open and instinctively knew how to work some of the people within minutes of meeting them.

It was almost as if I was playing a strategic game for 8 hours though I didn't think of it as such at the time. When you are in there and interectacting on that level, your brain goes into a different mode. At least mine does. Here, now at home, I can look at the me I portrayed myself there as one created by the environment it was in. Not any less me than any other side, but I suppose more interesting considering how immediate my game mode could kick in within a new store.

When you are first hired, it is a gradual process of finding how you are going to interact and work with the people around you, so I guess I just expected it to be awkward and exploratory like that again. I suppose in some ways it is, but as one employee pointed out, they could tell I wasn't new to the company because I walked around the store with too much confidence.