I went to work and I survived

9/14/2015 Amanda Steelman

Written by Amanda Steelman

I survived my first week of work!
After my first blog post, the rest of the summer went by pretty quickly. I wasn’t as adventurous as some of my classmates. I stayed U.S. bound for my final summer of freedom. After my move-in week in Houston, I headed north to Dallas for the rest of summer. My boyfriend and his roommate were kind enough to donate their TV and couch to my cause of catching up on Netflix (mainly because my roommate is only moving in this week, and with her comes the couch, the dining table, and essentially everything not in my bedroom). It was pretty cool to get to spend some time in another big city! Even though I spent most of my weekends travelling around the U.S. visiting friends or attending weddings, I managed to spend at least two weekends enjoying Dallas (and the couch). 
Unfortunately, my mission to watch as much TV and do as much nothing as I could was interrupted by my studying for the FE exam (which I took in mid-July). But that’s okay, because the desire to procrastinate and not study made me feel like I was almost still in school. To be honest, I was completely lost for the four days in between the exam and my return to Houston. It was too weird not having ANYTHING to do. It was a long exam, but in some strange way, I’m actually really glad that I took it. It was cool to see everything I learned in college in one exam. It was a nice way to wrap everything up; I guess it put things in perspective. That being said, I’m awfully glad that I passed because I have no desire to do that again, no matter how cool it kind of was. 
I wish I could say that my summer was more exciting, but honestly it was great to just have time to not really do much at all. Travelling every weekend to Illinois, Indiana, Washington, D.C. and Houston kept me pretty busy, and it was great to catch up with friends, but it was also some much needed downtime, since I’ve worked pretty much every summer since I started college, so it was great to have some quality couch time. I’m glad I had the opportunity to take a bit of a break in between graduating and starting work. 
WORK! Yeah, so that’s a thing now.
I had a pretty crazy realization as I was driving back to Houston before work. I’ve interned for ExxonMobil for the past three summers in the same department and from the first time around, I knew that I was doing exactly what I wanted to do when I graduated. So from sophomore year, I knew that most likely Houston was going to be my home, I just had to survive the rest of college. Each year I’d feel like I was getting a little bit closer but it still felt so far away. It hit me last week that I’m finally here. I know this sounds ridiculously cheesy, but in some ways, every moment since I accepted my first internship in November of my sophomore year has led up to here. And it all worked out. And I couldn’t be happier. 
It’s also pretty terrifying because it’s like: “Well, now what?”
Now, I work. Which brings me to the main point of this post: I just had my last first day ever! (Well, hopefully, right?) My last first day at ExxonMobil at least, and for someone who had the unofficial nickname of serial intern, it feels pretty crazy. I hear it takes a couple months before it really settles in. Right now I’m just trying to get a grasp on what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. There was a last-minute change of team assignment (ironically I received the email on my birthday), but I’m officially a member of the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Exploration team and I’m super excited! So far it looks like it’s going to be a really cool project to be a part of. I’ll be doing what’s called a 2x2x2 rotation, where I’ll spend two weeks in the office, two weeks on the rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and two weeks off to make up for the crazy hours I’ll work when I’m offshore. I’ll fill y’all in on what that actually entails when I figure it out myself. 
This week has seemed really strange in some ways because I’m so used to an internship, where you come in and are immediately handed a project that you know you only have two months or so to complete and you go from there. You have no idea HOW you are actually going to finish everything on time, but at least you have an idea of what you’re doing and when it’s due. Full-time isn’t quite like that (at least not yet), I keep waiting for the piece of paper that explains everything and I still haven’t found it. I’ve talked to a couple new hires that were interns first and they said they felt the same way, so at least I’m not crazy, I’ll figure it out eventually. :) 
Alright, I feel like this has been a crazy long post so I’m going to leave it here for now. More updates on work once I figure out what’s actually going on! Until then, I’ve got a couple weeks of orientations, training, and school ahead of me! So much for being done with classes (ha). 
Enjoy the last couple weeks of summer, everyone!I survived my first week of work!
 
Sometimes snapchats say it all. But hey, I survived!
Sometimes snapchats say it all. But hey, I survived!
Sometimes snapchats say it all. But hey, I survived!
After my first blog post, the rest of the summer went by pretty quickly. I wasn’t as adventurous as some of my classmates. I stayed U.S. bound for my final summer of freedom. After my move-in week in Houston, I headed north to Dallas for the rest of summer. My boyfriend and his roommate were kind enough to donate their TV and couch to my cause of catching up on Netflix (mainly because my roommate is only moving in this week, and with her comes the couch, the dining table, and essentially everything not in my bedroom). It was pretty cool to get to spend some time in another big city! Even though I spent most of my weekends travelling around the U.S. visiting friends or attending weddings, I managed to spend at least two weekends enjoying Dallas (and the couch). 
 
Unfortunately, my mission to watch as much TV and do as much nothing as I could was interrupted by my studying for the FE exam (which I took in mid-July). But that’s okay, because the desire to procrastinate and not study made me feel like I was almost still in school. To be honest, I was completely lost for the four days in between the exam and my return to Houston. It was too weird not having ANYTHING to do. It was a long exam, but in some strange way, I’m actually really glad that I took it. It was cool to see everything I learned in college in one exam. It was a nice way to wrap everything up; I guess it put things in perspective. That being said, I’m awfully glad that I passed because I have no desire to do that again, no matter how cool it kind of was. 
 
I wish I could say that my summer was more exciting, but honestly it was great to just have time to not really do much at all. Travelling every weekend to Illinois, Indiana, Washington, D.C. and Houston kept me pretty busy, and it was great to catch up with friends, but it was also some much needed downtime, since I’ve worked pretty much every summer since I started college, so it was great to have some quality couch time. I’m glad I had the opportunity to take a bit of a break in between graduating and starting work. 
 
WORK! Yeah, so that’s a thing now.
 
I had a pretty crazy realization as I was driving back to Houston before work. I’ve interned for ExxonMobil for the past three summers in the same department and from the first time around, I knew that I was doing exactly what I wanted to do when I graduated. So from sophomore year, I knew that most likely Houston was going to be my home, I just had to survive the rest of college. Each year I’d feel like I was getting a little bit closer but it still felt so far away. It hit me last week that I’m finally here. I know this sounds ridiculously cheesy, but in some ways, every moment since I accepted my first internship in November of my sophomore year has led up to here. And it all worked out. And I couldn’t be happier. 
 
It’s also pretty terrifying because it’s like: “Well, now what?”
 
Now, I work. Which brings me to the main point of this post: I just had my last first day ever! (Well, hopefully, right?) My last first day at ExxonMobil at least, and for someone who had the unofficial nickname of serial intern, it feels pretty crazy. I hear it takes a couple months before it really settles in. Right now I’m just trying to get a grasp on what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. There was a last-minute change of team assignment (ironically I received the email on my birthday), but I’m officially a member of the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Exploration team and I’m super excited! So far it looks like it’s going to be a really cool project to be a part of. I’ll be doing what’s called a 2x2x2 rotation, where I’ll spend two weeks in the office, two weeks on the rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and two weeks off to make up for the crazy hours I’ll work when I’m offshore. I’ll fill y’all in on what that actually entails when I figure it out myself. Here's a website that shows some pics of where I'll be working when I'm offshore. 
 
This week has seemed really strange in some ways because I’m so used to an internship, where you come in and are immediately handed a project that you know you only have two months or so to complete and you go from there. You have no idea HOW you are actually going to finish everything on time, but at least you have an idea of what you’re doing and when it’s due. Full-time isn’t quite like that (at least not yet), I keep waiting for the piece of paper that explains everything and I still haven’t found it. I’ve talked to a couple new hires that were interns first and they said they felt the same way, so at least I’m not crazy, I’ll figure it out eventually. :) 
Alright, I feel like this has been a crazy long post so I’m going to leave it here for now. More updates on work once I figure out what’s actually going on! Until then, I’ve got a couple weeks of orientations, training, and school ahead of me! So much for being done with classes (ha). 
 
Enjoy the last couple weeks of summer, everyone!
 
 

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This story was published September 14, 2015.