Day 1 in the New World

My first day at Sam Houston State was quite remarkable. It all started with NOT having to fight commuter traffic going to Houston. I have been fighting southbound traffic on I-45 for almost 8 years. For once I'm going in the opposite direction. That in and of itself is reason to be excited.

When I arrived at the office, I had to start meeting everyone, making rounds and making my way around campus. It turns out that a current employee at "Sam" is going to be my counterpart in my new job. She and I will be responsible for 60 student-employees between us. Quite a task for two first-time managers. However, both Kayla - my counterpart - and I have been assured that we will receive appropriate training to make sure we are prepared for our job. Pretty cool, I must say.

Probably the most interesting event of the day came when I was trying to set up my employee computer account. Sam uses a SQL database that contains old mainframe data from years back. Whenever my name was entered to perform a query (HR was supposed to have entered my user info), information over 18 years old was pulled up. I had forgotten, but during the summer between my Jr/Sr year of high school - 1986 if anyone might ask - I took the SAT and ACT had selected Sam as one of my school interests. Even though I had forgotten Sam, Sam had not forgotten me. Since HR had not entered my info, so I had to wait another day to get my new user account. No biggie. Still, it was funny to have seen the info contained in my prospective student file. I don't remember my entrance exam scores being quite that bad. Sometimes the memory fails us - for good and bad reasons. I think my memory had done me a favor. I'm glad that noone had accessed this particular information BEFORE I got hired. The outcome could have been quite different.

As for the rest of my first day, I really think I"m going to like this new job as well as the people I work with. It's hard to believe that I am working in the capacity that I am at this particular institution. I've been pinching myself since I realized that I had been hired. Who says we shouldn't expect anything more?

God truly does work in mysterious ways. Sometimes He pulls off stuff that amazes us all.