Again, But Better(108)
Her smile broadens. “Thank you, Shane. I’ll keep all of that in mind.”
I nod back, grinning. “I’ll be over there if you need me.” I gesture to my table.
I head back to the kitchen and make another cup: this one for Declan. I bring it over to the editing bay.
“Hi, Declan! I’ve made you a cup of tea. I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Shane…”
Then Donna. I go on like that, making my rounds, talking to all of them: Declan, Donna, the middle-aged man named George I’ve never interacted with, Janet, and even Jamie, the posh, bleach-blond woman that I avoided the first time because she scared me. I end by taking a cup of tea to Tracey and reiterating my sentiments.
“Thanks … How did you know about our tea station?” Tracey asks.
“Um, I saw the chart while I was putting the bagels out on Thursday,” I tell her.
Now everyone knows my name, my intentions, and that my blog exists. I send them all separate emails with this information. And in each one I sign off with:
PS: I know I already talked about my blog; here’s a link to one of my pieces: frenchwatermelon19.com/NoobsGuideToParis. I’d love for you to check it out. Notes and constructive criticism are always appreciated.
At 3:00 p.m., I do a quick lap around the office, checking to see if anyone would like a second cup of tea. Declan asks me where I’m from. Donna jokes around, saying how impressed she is with her excellent cup of tea—she wouldn’t expect that from an American.
* * *
When I come in the next day, everyone greets me by name. I bring them all their morning tea without being asked. Donna invites me to come sit with her while she plans out her next work trip: She’s headed to Capri on Thursday. I sit next to her for most of the morning. She talks about traveling and asks me where I’ve been so far.
Before the end of the day, Wendy stops by my little station and tells me she read my “Noob’s Guide to Paris” piece. My heart does a can-can. She tells me it was “hilarious and charming!”
Wendy leans forward on my table and says, “You know what? Maybe you should start putting together a piece about studying abroad in London for review. If all goes well, I might reconsider this piece. Maybe it could go live online mid-March and, who knows, maybe be printed in the April issue.”
My feet dance over the floor under my desk. I can do this.
Wendy advises me to take another look at their various pieces covering travel to different cities and try to blend my style with theirs. I spend the rest of the day using the company MacBook to do just that.
* * *
Thursday, Wendy invites me out to drinks with the rest of the office. Apparently it’s something they do every Thursday. I go. Wendy buys me a drink and talks about her college days, and when she took a gap year to travel. Declan asks me how old I am. When I tell him almost twenty-one, he’s completely taken back—he thought I was in high school. He’s a couple years out of college. Donna tells us a hilarious story about someone she went on a date with last week. Tracey talks to me without a hint of disdain about a singer she’s going to see this weekend: Lily Allen. I know a couple of her songs. She asks me what kind of music I’m into, who I’ve seen live. I’ve only known her to begrudgingly tolerate me, and I’m overjoyed that we’ve connected over something. I start to get a feeling for who these people actually are. They’re creative and outspoken and lighthearted. And I start to feel like I … belong among them.
* * *
Babe, Sahra, and I take a trip to Berlin together over the weekend. I bring my notebook. When we get back Sunday night, I write out a new post and borrow Babe’s computer afterward to type it up and publish it. I’m loving crystalizing my experiences this way. I love anchoring my thoughts immediately on paper before they start to float away. I love the triumphant satisfaction that comes with reading it all back once the post goes live.
* * *
Little by little, I start to build a draft of the London study abroad piece for Packed. Every day I try to push myself to sample more of London: new lunch places, different supermarkets. When I have time, I ride different Tube lines. I get off at new stops and walk around to new areas. I keep notes. One day, while I’m on the train, I flip the notebook upside down, open the back cover, and start drafting the novel I had outlined in Sawyer. From then on, I flip it over at least once a day to keep working on it.
For the Packed! article, I’m trying to compile a list of my top twenty-five things to cram into your study abroad experience before you go bankrupt. If I want to travel more this go-round—which I’ve now resolved to do—the remainder of my college-student-summer-and-winter-break job savings will all be gone by (or probably before) the end of this semester. I put together a short blog post with the top five cities I’d like to get to.
FIVE PLACES I WANNA HIT BEFORE I HEAD BACK TO AMERICA:
1) Every city I’ve yet to see in Italy (at least Florence)
2) Dublin
3) Prague
4) Amsterdam
5) Edinburgh
To be safe, I mention that I’m running low on money for food in an email to my parents. They kindly transfer over a small cushion, and I set it all aside for meals. I’ve been avoiding Skype calls. Since the break, we’ve been communicating strictly over email, with very little detail, and I’ve been prompting them to read my blog to see what I’m up to.