An Update on the Intern Front: Learning to Plan.

It’s already been a month of summer, and I’m having a hard time believing this. It hit me the other day when I was attempting to make plans with a friend from Boston and I realized that I only have one more free weekend after next for the rest of the summer. Soon after, I realized that I actually have plans on that weekend.

One cool thing about this summer so far is that it’s already been a learning experience for me in many ways. At first, I was kind of worried about trying to pull an internship and a job, plus being a camp counselor for a week, and traveling, and still having time to stay healthy, happy and relatively sane. But I’m glad I took on what I did, because even if, at first, I bit off more than I could chew, I have two more months to chew on anyway and wash it down with lemonade.

Learning experience numero A has been my internship for sure. Since this was my first one, and I kinda just dove in head first, I’ve made a few mistakes, but the experience has proven to be forgiving and even rewarding. The most significant mistake I've made was having a complete disregard for the time amount of time I would have to split between my 32-hr per week job (formerly 40-hrs, as I had to cut back to make room for interning), and a volunteer-based internship 20 miles away (I live in a small town,  if I hadn’t mentioned that before ;p). When I received news that I got the internship, I was ready to commit 100%. I could find a job, I told myself, that could work around the time I wanted to put in at my internship. I didn’t have to worry.

But worry I should have.

Because I did not get any other job, besides the 40-hrs-a-week-with-the-same-hours-as-my-internship one.

But I have learned, my readership, oh how I’ve learned. If I have any a valuable lesson thus far, it is this: PLAN. No matter how much you think you wont have to, if it’s anything of relative importance, at least think about how you're gonna get there (and now I'm exaggerating). I’m not suggesting that the only way to accomplish things in life is with a to-the-minute schedule, planners, highlighters and the like. But one should at the very least consider the hours in the day and the days in the week, because if you’re anything like me, you’ll have to cut back and make some sacrifices, and the sooner you know what you’re actually going to be doing, the better.

All that being said, in spite of the lack of planning, my internship is beginning to take more shape than it was two weeks ago. I have the opportunity to work on a cultural competence project (exactly what that entails, I don't know yet), along with other basic volunteer duties at and around the center. It will continue to be a learning experience I'm sure, in more ways than one, and now I can look forward to it with at least some idea of what's going on.

Thanks for reading!