Congratulations, it's your first day of work at your brand spankin' new job!
For a lot of college graduates, this may be your first day stepping into the big kid career world, and if so, hats off to you and good luck.
You'll be experiencing a pretty wild roller coaster of emotions and questions on your first big day, but we're here to remind you that everyone experiences them.
From the excitement, to the panic, to the really intense panic, your first day will be both wonderful and terrifying.
Here are just 8 of the nerve wracking emotions you'll undoubtedly experience on that first day.
1. Worrying that you're going to be late
It's the night before your first day, and you're slumbering peacefully in your bed. Your peaceful rest is disturbed by the worst possible kind of anxiety dream: the dream that you show up late on your first day, or, even worse, you forget to show up at all.
This dream will not only make you wake up early, but you'll also start checking your phone compulsively to check the time, and make sure that you did actually set an alarm that night.
[anad]
This'll leave you nervous, and tired as all hell by the time your alarm finally goes off. But your fear won't end there, and even though Google Maps is telling you to leave at 8:30, you're going to leave at 8 because what if there's an apocalyptic explosion keeping you from your train?
2. Showing up way too early because you were so worried about being late
Alright, so you're already regretting leaving half an hour early because now you're standing awkwardly in front of your work building half an hour before you're scheduled to come in.
You can try to kill some time in your local Starbucks, but killing an entire half hour is harder than it seems.
In the end you'll probably settle for killing 15 minutes by wandering around before entering your new workspace, hoping they'll be impressed by your showing up early on your first day.
3. Sitting around awkwardly while you wait for someone to show you where to go
Part of the anxiety that comes with your first day of work is that you're not entirely sure of what it is you're going to be doing. Sure, you may have a pretty solid idea of what you'll be doing, but now you'll actually have to do it.
If you're lucky you'll get an introductory tour of your new digs, and maybe meet some of your new coworkers along the way.
If you're not so lucky you'll just be sent right to your new corner of the office and put right to work without any pomp or circumstance.
4. I CAN'T DO THIS
Once you actually know what it is you'll be doing you'll probably start to doubt yourself. You'll suddenly forget how to open Microsoft Word, how to compose an email, and start sweating profusely.
Take a breath, calm down, remember that you got this job for a reason. Unless you lied on your resume, you're qualified for the job that you have, and they wouldn't have offered it to you if they didn't think you could handle it.
Chill, you've got this.
5. I CAN do this!
Once you start rolling you'll quickly realize that you can do what it is you're supposed to be doing. See, we believed in you all along!
6. When's lunch?
Most work environments don't lay out a set break hour for you―and some jobs make you eat at your desk. Regardless, your stomach will start rumbling at some point and it's going to be awkward.
Do you just leave for lunch? Do you ask someone for permission to go to lunch? Will they get annoyed if you ask them if you can go to lunch because obviously you can just go ahead and go to lunch?
Plus, there's the two week period where you're still trying to figure out whether you want to buy lunch, or bring your own everyday. No one wants to be eating a homemade ham sandwich on their first day when everyone else is hitting up Chipotle.
7. Who do you sit with at lunch?
If you're lucky enough to have a lunch break where you can venture away from your usual work area, you'll have to deal with the next conundrum of deciding who to sit with, or if you just want to straight up sit alone.
[anad2]
It'll feel a lot like the cafeteria scene in Mean Girls as you try to sort out the jocks from the preps from the band geeks, and maybe you'll never entirely figure out who to sit with lunch, and in those cases a book or a podcast is your inanimate best friend.
8. Feeling awkward about leaving at the end of the day
Congratulations! You made it all the way to the end of the day! Alright, so the day has finally wrapped up, and you're feeling pumped about how great your day has gone.
The problem is, do you just leave? It's your first day, so you should probably check in with whoever your supervise is before going... or do they not even want you to do that?
It's the entire leaving for lunch problem all over again, except this time it's keeping you from heading home and changing into comfy sweats.
You'll either suck up your courage and go ask your boss if you can go, or throw caution to the wind and just head on home without checking in.
Regardless of how you choose to go about the situation, give yourself a pat on the back, because you just made it through your first day. Only hundreds more to go!
[Feature Image Courtesy Instagram]