I remember my first day of first grade. I was super scared and nervous. I remember sitting in my assigned seat at my assigned table of 4 trying to psych myself up to go tell my teacher that I didn't feel right. As you can imagine in a new school where everyone else seemed to know each other, I was experiencing an overwhelming amount of stress. Although I could only articulate it at the time as "I feel weird"... Anyway, I eventually gather the courage to go to Mrs. Gashin's desk and attempt to recite the line I'd been working on and instead just broke down in tears. She picked me up and gave me a big hug and then called in the guidance counselor. The guidance counselor said that I needed a friend and walked with me down the halls where we eventually made our way up to Mrs. Foley's 4th grade class. The counselor summoned Gus from his first day of fourth grade out into the hall and we embraced in what is probably our longest hug to date (we have lived 25+ more years since then). The rest of the day is a blur, which I assume indicates that the stress dissipated a bit.
Now the roles feel reversed.
Today is my brother's first day at MilliporeSigma. I don't know if he's scared or nervous. I've been at MilliporeSigma 3 years longer than him and at this point I know a lot of the people and the place pretty well. I messaged him last night telling him I could give him a hug if he gets scared or nervous too. I know he's probably fine but I just wish I could return the favor.
