CHAPTER ONE
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| Picture source http://www.letiarts.com/uncategorized/first-day-chronicles-mandy/ |
On
18th of September 2017, I was officially reporting at a governmental
office in Nairobi as an attachee as one of the steps required by the university
for my study completion. That Monday morning I was feeling positive and excited
yet anxious to meet my supervisors and the other members of staff. To reduce
the anxiety I made sure that I arrived at the place well on time. By 8 am I had already reported and that was the beginning of a long miserable day!
After
going to all the receptions I knew of in the compound to inquire about the
office I was meant to report to I was already weary and sweaty, bored and a
little on the “to hell with this, I wanna go home” mood. But because it was my
first day and I knew nothing about the company operations, of which I had gone
there to learn about because, (yeah… the university required that for them to
give me my well-deserved degree) I had to wait! Patiently upholding the lessons I learned about "Your first day at work". I was uncomfortably trying to maintain the “How to present
yourself on your first day at work” tips that I watched on YouTube the previous
night so that everybody would have an amazing first impression of me.
“Keep a straight back as you sit”
“Hold your head up high”
“Look people in the eye”
“Keep a happy face”
I
could vividly recall all that the high pitched tutor had stated in her grey
official dress and dark brown hair. “I can do this, I’m gonna pull this off
like a pro.” I kept telling myself mentally.
But
that was a challenge considering that I was seated on a navy blue tattered and old,
abandoned seat at the corner of the reception adjacent to the receptionist’s
desk where an old jovial woman was seated picking calls with a happy “Block Q,
Hello!” song. One could clearly tell that she had been doing that for so long
but surprisingly her charisma was still alive.
At this point I had seen almost
all the staff members reporting, visitors coming and going and at every ring of
the telephone I would sing sarcastically in unison with the receptionist under
a low frustrated breath… “Block Q, Hello!”
This
unforeseen tragedy lasted for about an hour and a half, what honestly felt to
me like the whole day, until I was finally called to the office that I was
destined to be supervised from. I quickly glanced at the time on the top right
corner of my three year old Samsung screen as I hurriedly logged out of
Instagram.
Remember:
“Keep a straight back as you sit”
“Hold your head up high”
“Look people in the eye”
“Keep a happy face”
Hi guys! Sorry I have been MIA for so long. To know what happened next please keep following for updates. The next story shall be posted soon!
Peace xoxo
