Unintentionally educational for unserious creatives

I remember the first day walking into the agency and thinking “Wow, red floors. Cool I guess.” You could not catch me with red floors anywhere. But here? It was a sign. Of what, I didn’t know yet. But it sure as hell screamed WE ARE HERE AND WE ARE NOT SHY. AND IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE IT, GET FUCKED. I wanted to scream back HOW THE FUCK DO I DO THIS JOB WELL?? HOW DO I FIND A PLACE HERE? ISN’T RED A LIL TOO AGGRESSIVE? Instead I shook everyone’ s hands, claimed a desk and wondered when they would find out I am an imposter.

The halls felt very big – it was the legacies of previous Kennedys and David Kennedy himself pressing down on me. The greatness with which everyone has talked about this program, the guys that started it, the history we were now a part of and had the responsibility to carry forward. I liked it. It was exciting to feel a part of something bigger and knowing there is a mark you can leave in a place that appreciates it – as long as you make it your own.

Three months in, I find it funny looking back on our first few weeks because we really didn’t know what to expect. But we were 8 people from completely different backgrounds and WE were excited. And EVERYONE else was too. We even got an all-agency applause our first day in. Love you guys for that one.

I also remember writing down everything I could; the bits & pieces of wisdom people shared; Susan’s bigger-than-life stories of how the agency started; names of conference rooms which I still cannot name correctly. I wrote down lists and lists and lists: of writing advice, career advice, baby ideas that didn’t survive the first round of creative guillotine, books I wanted to read to not suck at this job, etc. So since we started in this theme, here is the list of things I learned so far: