First Day Jitters

Picture this: it's your first day on the job, you woke up on a couch and/or air mattress on the floor of a packed living room with your three other co-fellows, you have just come off two weeks of intense training that has been both mind blowing and intimidating since everyone who has spoken is highly accomplished and many are within15 years of your age, AND you're working directly with a population that will like you if you're lucky, but would have many reasons to hate/resent/dislike/not accept you.

Welcome to my first day at HIPS.

I wasn't as nervous as I could have been since Jonathan was by my side, I did walk into day one at HIPS a touch wide-eyed and surprised. Perhaps one of my favorite stories so far happened shortly thereafter.

The fellow who I am replacing, Eve, showed us the ropes and gave us a grand tour of the office. We then popped upstairs to check out the HIPS van that we use to do mobile outreach. Essentially it's a soccer-mom minivan with cool HIPS decals adorning the sides. Just as we were inspecting the vehicle, a woman walks by and says quite loudly, “Are y'all HIPS??” I couldn't read her tone – was it sassy? Happy? Accusatory? Excited? Admonishing?

“Uhhh, yes,” replied Eve. Jon and I were slightly dumbfounded and perhaps we nodded slightly.

“I just wanted to tell you,” she drawled and then paused – what was coming next? “That I think you're great! I used to be a prostitute, my best friend is STILL a prostitute, but I have a real job now. You guys helped me so much, I think you're great. Keep doin' whatcha doin'!”

Talk about validation and pride when we were feeling shaky on our first day!