An expression given in response to someone else's tale of woe. Indicates that such unusual bogosity is typical in the life of the expression's user.

"...and then this and this and this happened, and snafu fubar garg..."

"Welcome to my world."

When I started working at an IT firm in May, I began learning about a whole new breed of office environment. Most office environments are the same, stereotypically: gossip, backstabbing, half-hearted employee get-togethers, deflated perks, childish ownership disputes over office property, office supply fetishes, and low frequency sexual tension. Within each category of office based on what it produces, there are more gradations. But this was my first time in an office environment for the long haul, and I guess I expected things to be slightly different, since it was (and you see here my naivete) an IT firm. I found out that this is not the case, of course. There are still those on the top who ask those on the bottom to do meaningless tasks not because they themselves are too busy or that the act itself is meaningful to them. They do it solely because they like having someone to boss around. They pat your back when you do well but never realize that that alone is not enough to motivate you. Put your money where your mouth is. You're only acting like this because you own the company. Blah blah blah.

I was talking to Ken, who is a programmer (while his company calls him a software developer, a longer and seemingly prestigious title he can't stand), about some of the things they have me do at work: test the sites we design for errors, write error docs, none of which I had ever done before. I also talked to Mike about my new job and the frustrations of having to build proposals for your boss, trying to tell him that what he wants won't work, then watch him throw a tantrum if he doesn't trust your judgement. It wasn't long before both of them uttered the familiar line, "Welcome to my world."

The statement implies many things. On one hand the speaker is confirming your greenness to a situation, which to the hearer may imply haughtiness. On the other hand, the speaker is also inviting you into his world view, albeit with sometimes shrugging resignation (as in, "sucks, don't it?") that you have not escaped the trap in which the speaker has found himself. It's a statement that runs both ways.

An alternate form of this is, "welcome to the real world." This implies sort of the same feeling. It assumes that before this point you were not in the real world, that you were lulled into believing that you were above the trappings of the real world. In comparision this statement is almost always more negative and somewhat condescending, as though the speaker were a better, more mature person qualified to make such a statement.

In either case, it's a hard commment to swallow, if you care at all what the speaker has said to you before, i.e., (s)he is a good friend of yours and you plan to talk to them again in the future. Most people blow it off. I try to, but I do feel that it is yet another way we jockey for position, for we often can only triangulate ourselves using other people as beacons. We try not to set up dividers, but we just can't help doing it. We can't help it because we need to signify ourselves apart from our environment.

So I am in your world now, and you're right, I may not really like all of it, but hey, it's one more world under my belt, one less galaxy to discover.

Welcome to my world,
Won't you come on in
Miracles, I guess
Still happen now and then

Step into my heart
Leave your cares behind
Welcome to my world
Built with you in mind

Bridge: Knock and the door will open
Seek and you will find
Ask and you'll be given
The key to this world of mine

I'll be waiting there
With my arms unfurled
Waiting just for you
Welcome to my world

This Ray Winkler and John Hathcock composition was a #2 hit for Jim Reeves in 1964,* and ever since, it’s been a country standard. Although, except for the Light Crust Doughboys, everyone else seems to keep the lush strings and chorus of the original Nashville sound arrangement. It’s been recorded by Kitty Wells, Webb Pierce, Floyd Cramer, Andy Williams, Tammy Wynette, and Charley Pride. Eddy Arnold charted at #39 with it in 1971 and made it his theme song (When Reader’s Digest put out a 6 LP Box Set of Arnold, sure enough, it was called Welcome to My World). And who can forget the live recordings of Elvis Presley (Remember Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite)?

BMI notes that the song has surpassed the one million U.S. airplays mark (mainly on just Reeves and Arnold’s recordings), and this doesn’t even count the inevitable MIDI file that plays when you visit Web pages with the lyrics to this song.


Dean Martin recorded the song in 1965, on his (Remember Me) I'm the One Who Love You LP (Reprise 6170). His Welcome to My World LP (Reprise 6250) featured:
  1. In the Chapel in the Moonlight
  2. Release Me
  3. I Can't Help Remembering You
  4. Turn to Me
  5. Wallpaper Roses
  6. Little Ole Wine Drinker Me
  7. Green Green Grass of Home
  8. A Place in the Shade
  9. Pride
  10. Welcome to My World
Dino's album reached #20 on the Billboard charts in 1967, mainly because he was using Winkler's and Hathcock's song at the time as the theme music to his television show on NBC.
In 1977, RCA followed up on the success of Elvis on the country singles chart by releasing a compilation of country tunes. Welcome to My World (RCA APL-1-2274) featured these tracks:
    Side 1
  1. Welcome To My World
  2. Help Me Make It Through The Night
  3. Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)
  4. I Really Don't Want To Know
  5. For The Good Times
  6. Side 2
  7. Make The World Go Away
  8. Gentle On My Mind
  9. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
  10. Your Cheatin' Heart
  11. I Can't Stop Loving You

*Thus making this quite possibly the highest charting song to ever rhyme "unfurled" with "world." Actually, a quick Google search shows that plenty of songs use that rhyme, in pop, punk, and musical theatre. Songwriters from Bruce Springsteen to Steven Schwartz have used it, but as of yet, no song with this rhyme has hit #1 on the charts. Sources (that don’t have the MIDI file): Larry Davis, "Re: Writer Johnny Hatchcock Passes," 29 December 2000, <alt.music.country.classic> (26 February 2002, via Google) Robert S. Ensler, "Dean Martin on Reprise," 11 November 2001 Robert S. Ensler Presents, <http://www.robertsenslerpresents.com/> (26 February 2002) Dave Morris, "Re: Re:Welcome to My world," 19 February 1998, <rec.music.country.western> (26 February 2002, via Google) " BMI Million-Airs" Broadcast Music, Inc. Award Web Site, &t;http://www.bmi.com/awards/millionairs/> (26 February 2002) "Elvis Presley: Welcome to My World," CDUniverse, <http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?style=music&PID=1111369> (26 February 2002) The Jim Reeves Way, <http://www.Jim-reeves.com> (26 February 2002)

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