Monday 23-07-2018 - 09:38

I don’t think many jobs would take you to Wales and throw you off a big hill on your first day. Mine did.

I’d known for months that the very first thing I’d be doing as an officer would include a weekend away with the rest of my team and the senior managers of the Union. It still terrified me though — I had no idea what to expect and I didn’t even know where we were going! The main worry I had was that I wouldn’t get along with anyone or that I would annoy them too much. however that really wasn’t the case. Hands down, I feel closer to everyone else on my team than I have ever felt in my life.

After in some ways a baptism of fire, we eventually settled into our working week which meant training. Lots of training. From appeals to finance, all bases were being covered at a million miles an hour with moving house to fit in after work! It was quite tiring truth be told and I think I slept better than I ever have in my life! All of this and only 10 days in.

My next big challenge was UEG (University Exec Group) — I thought I was over being nervous (after all I was zip lining the week before!) but evidently I was not. The meeting started strong with Lucy covering the minute taker in water as Amie was reading her opening statement. It then took ten minutes of no one making eye contact for risk of giggling like school kids and disrupting the rest of the meeting. Amie then took an entire agenda point to have us introduce ourselves; I flipped a plate upside down. All in all myself and Lucy clearly know how to introduce ourselves! I also chose to finish up my intro by abruptly throwing my pen at the desk; that got a few chuckles too.

The end of that week was much more relaxed. We met with Emily our NUS rep and chatted about what we were hoping to do with them this year which is something I was especially excited about! Then we had a picnic with the Voice and Opportunities staff before playing some fun games and attempting to learn some Irish dancing; which Lucy was a pro at. That brings me nicely to this week where we’ve continued to train and get to know each other more. We are starting to relax around one another and around the other staff. I can already say I’m more comfortable around them all as I kicked Lucy, Andy and Ross out the office five minutes ago for being too noisy! (I really hope they didn’t mind and know that I love them really!)

I also had my first serious bit of work to do… I made a video! With Josh, our Digital Content Produces and Ben, our Head of Commercial Development, we put together a bid for the National Societies Awards in the hope of becoming the hosts for 2019. It took a few hours of filming and literally running around Manchester to pull together, and I’m so excited to show off the results next week!

All this in 20 days! And here is to just as much positivity for 20 more.