Being Known

As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, many of my co-workers in Virginia referred to me as "the quiet girl" when I first arrived in Virginia. I wanted to expand on that, mostly to explain why that was a negative thing to me.


I love quiet people. My sister can be partially described as a quiet person, and she is one of my favorite people in the world. She listens more than she speaks, which is a beautiful quality. The reason I didn't like being called "the quiet girl" was because it reaffirmed my belief that my co-workers didn't know me. It took months and months for me to become comfortable in that office, and I'm fairly certain that's because it's full of cubicles and hushed phone calls. That doesn't lend itself to getting to know one another. It just took time and thus patience. I've never been great at patience.


Part of the issue was the comparison of my old job with my new one. I had been at Vanguard University in an office of three people for the past three years. I happened to love those people and worked well with them. And man, did they know me. My boss there knew my favorite soda, my favorite TV shows, favorite movies, my strengths, my competitive streak, my love of all things creative...he even knew that I had a weird habit of smacking my lips together whenever I was thinking about what I wanted to eat (knew that and mocked that, and I'm glad the nickname "P-dawg" - in honor of Pavlov's dog - did not stick). I think I had grown so accustomed to coming to work with people who were almost like family to me that it was a shock to my system to go to a new place.

That's Drake, my old boss, and most of his family.

The happy ending to this (and the one that will also not get me in trouble if Regent HR reads this) is that over time, I've become known in my current office. Most mornings, I pop open my Diet Pepsi and someone shouts "Hello, Emily!" They laugh at my lame jokes instead of staring at me, wondering if I'm serious or not. They know I have a dog and a new baby and a husband who acts. Most are aware that I am leaving in five months to go back to California. All are painfully aware that I think California is superior to Virginia. 


I'm just saying...it's nice to be known.