Circle Blog 1: New Place. New Life

New place. New job.  New people.  New life.  This is the reality for Mae at the beginning of The Circle, as well as for myself and all of the other freshman, just joining the Penn State family.  Early on into the book, similarities between the Circle and Penn State can be seen.

 This can be greatest seen in that the Circle is referred to as a "campus" within the first ten words of the book.  Already, you can see just how closely related the Circle will be to a college.

The dynamic of Mae's arrival is much the same as our arrival on campus.  Within a short time of arriving, we were whisked off to be given a tour of campus.  In the same way, Renata begins giving Mae a tour of the Circle as soon as she arrives.  In both instances, these tours lasted most of the day, and no work needed to be done until later on another day.

The Circle is also brimming with opportunities just like Penn State is.  Mae attends a party on her very first day of work, truly before she has even started working.  This is much like how Penn State has had constant activities and events going on since we got here, and we've been here for three weeks!

There also seems to be a rich social life going on at the campus, just like at Penn State.  It seems that everyone at the Circle is friends with other people there, like a college campus, rather than trying to separate their work and personal lives.  This can greatly be seen by both groups attending parties with the people they work with.

I have also found that in many cases, like Mae, I end up working with two screens.  As soon as Mae started working, she had to contend with two different screens of information.  I find that many times when I am doing homework, I must jump between my computer screen, that I am typing on, and my phone screen, to read a book, check my email or numerous other tasks.

The people of the Circle and Penn State also have many similarities.  It seems like the people who work at the Circle act and talk like most college kids do, with lots of swearing and lots of jokes.  This enforces the idea that the circle is much more like a college campus, than a business.  I just can't see the people at Apple taking and making the jokes like the people at the circle, although I could be wrong, since I have never been to their headquarters.

A final similarity between the Circle and Penn State can be seen by Bailey's unveiling.  This event, at its beginning was reminiscent of the Convocation, where students in each college had to stand, and then look around awkwardly at everyone else standing while people stared at them, just like Mae had to do.  Bailey's speech also tried to pump up all of the circle employees to be in support, much like how the all the college student would be after any of the big school spirit centered events that we went to.

All of these examples are just part of the countless ways that the Circle is just like Penn State.  It is amazing to think that within months, Mae, as well as us freshman, will no longer be considered new to our new locations, but will find that it is home.