Blogging About Daily Life

I was catching up on some email , when a thought flashed through my mind. I realized how little I share about my daily life on this blog. There is so much going on in my life right now, and I never really considered writing about it. So, I’ve decided to crack the door open and allow you a greater glimpse into my world.

At this moment, I am taking a quick break from packing to eat some oatmeal. Me and my brother are moving and have to be out of this apartment by tomorrow. I have to do as much as I can today because in the morning, I go to work. Thank God that my bro and I have opposite schedules. While I’m at work, him and his buddies can finish moving and doing whatever else needs to be done.

As for my job, I just started working as an HTML Developer 3 weeks ago. This is my first time working with a design team. At most of my previous jobs, I was either freelancing or taking on the responsibility of an entire design department. Now, I work with men and women who know as much, if not more then me, which is challenging and cool at the same time.

The 2 most challenging aspects of working on a team is learning to be patient and learning to leave my ego at home. As far as patience goes, I am used to working in environments where I have more control over when things happen and how they happen. Now, I have to learn to wait on my fellow team members to do their jobs… so I am constantly reminding myself of one of my favorite quotes:

“Patience is a tree whose roots are bitter, but its fruits are very sweet.” -Anonymous

Leaving my ego at home is even tougher. For a long time, I worked in a state of always having to defend my intelligence and skills. At my previous job for example, I often felt like I was hired to meet an affirmative action quota. The worst type of insults, in my opinion, are the subtle ones. The one where your intelligence is often being indirectly questioned. The one where your peers are surprised when you do your job well (noticed I said surprised and not impressed – huge difference). The one where you’re hired as a salary employee who is expected to put in more then 40 hours, but treated like a micromanaged hourly employee. Funny thing is that the whole time I worked there, I never saw anyone else but the interns be asked to fill out a form every time they were late. And before you think that I was slacking, 99% of my reasons for being late were a transportation issues or sickness. In addition, whenever I was late or had to miss a day, I always made up for the time by working through my lunches and doing extra work from home. I guess it wasn’t enough.

So as far as egos go, I am realizing that on a team there is no room for it. I have to be willing to take constructive criticism and to learn from others. There is also no need to be on the defensive. I’m finding that I have as good of a chance to grow and succeed as anyone else. I am not treated like the town idiot, but instead am considered an equal citizen with a voice. I can get used to this.

Anyhow, I must get back to packing. Thanks for taking a glimpse into my world.