Ch-ch-ch Changes

Big achievement today - I managed to get through the entire night without a coughing fit. Hooray!!! I am seriously OVER this cold. I haven't been able to run all week mostly because of the coughing-most-of-the-night-and-not-getting-any-sleep thing. So I see that a full night in bed is an enormous improvement.

It's been a big week in the Donaldson household. Josh has started his first job as an electrical engineer. It was a pretty soft first week for him. Two days holiday followed by tree days work and this weekend is another long weekend. And his verdict on his first day? "Sucky" (I don't know - they go to university for 4 years and graduate with honours and that is the only adjective they can pull out of their vocabulary?) Why was it sucky? Because he was new and didn't know anything and didn't want to make a fool out of himself by asking stupid questions. Was there anything positive? They do have two pretty sweet coffee machines so Josh's caffeine addiction will be catered for.

I should not have been surprised at Josh's reaction. He has NEVER taken to new situations easily. He cried at the gate at kindergarten for months. Then when it was time to leave kindy and go to school he didn't want to leave his kindy teachers and he worried that I might not manage the shopping without his help. He walked into school every day for 6 months clutching a tissue to dab at his tears before he finally settled in. But once he got to high school the tears had dried up - only to be replaced by anger. Why did we send him to that sucky school? (His vocabulary didn't really improve from the age of 13, did it?)

Day 2 at work was preceded by a nervous stomach but the home-coming Josh was a lot happier than the day before. The work had gone well and he was making progress. Today is day 3 and Josh couldn't have been happier. There was singing in the kitchen and the ritual teasing-of-the-younger-brother. The status quo in our house has returned. Adjustment has taken only a couple of days. I'm sure there'll be a few hiccups in the next few months - times when he struggles with the work, times when things just don't go quite right - but I'm relieved that he seems to have settled fairly quickly.

His situation this week has made me do a bit of thinking about changes and adjustment. For years my life just ran smoothly with one year blending seamlessly into the other. I didn't really have to face any changes until the past decade. And Josh's problem with changes is a hereditary one. I don't like to make changes either - particularly if they're not ones that you've chosen but they've been imposed on you. But what I've learnt over this time of flux is that not all changes are bad, it's best accept them early on because resisting just wastes way too much emotional energy and flexibility can be your greatest asset. It's hard to fight your nature but this is one area I'm working on.