By Amanda Goodman

Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m Amanda, and I’m a senior from Michigan State University. You’ll get to know me really well over the next few weeks as I chronicle my experiences as the JOIN intern here at Kadima.

Perhaps the best place to start: my first day at Kadima. Heading in to work that day I felt like a fish out of water.

I had no idea what to expect. I was so nervous about what my job was going to be that I had not even realized I had no idea which direction I was driving. With my horrible sense of direction, on top of the questions flooding my mind, my first accomplishment on day one (at least in my mind) was finding the office. When I arrived, sitting outside the entrance were two clients who had the brightest smiles I had ever seen. Realistically, they were probably just enjoying the fresh air and happened to be outside when I arrived, but it made me smile to think they intentionally greeted me on day one of the job. So, that is the story I am going to believe.

In the blink of an eye not only was my first day complete, but so were my first couple weeks. Being here for two weeks, I can say I have experienced moments of embarrassment, happiness, excitement, accomplishment and so much more. Before I conclude, I’m going to share a brief interaction that has stuck in my mind. While leaving work yesterday, a client I had spoken to earlier in the week looked at me and said, “Thank you for talking with me. It is not often people take the time to talk to me.” To my surprise, that simple conversation went a long way. If you learn one thing from reading about my experience up to this point, I would urge you to get to know people… and also get directions to work before you drive there.