After participating in a summer internship where I lived on a college campus, I've learned many skills that would help me in the workplace in the future. Also in such a situation, I learned how to use a major survival skill that had never been necessary before: living without air conditioning for a summer.
Where I worked had AC, but my dorm did not. And I never lived in a dorm without air conditioning during my years at college, and certainly didn't have to when it was summer. Now I will share with you what a summer in the heat has taught me.
1. Fans are important.
I brought a fan with me, but a few weeks in, my roommate brought an even bigger fan in for our room. It changed the experience and surprised me because I had never found fans to be particularly helpful in cooling off entire rooms before.
2. Sometimes, rules must be broken.
We weren't supposed to keep our windows open when we weren't in the room, as the campus we were on had crazy squirrels that actually ate through screens to get inside the dorms. Our window only closed once when maintenance was putting mulch in outside of our dorm. It worked out fine, and honestly I felt kind of rebellious going "against the man" in a tiny way.
3. You have a work wardrobe, and then a dorm wardrobe.
I often wore pants to work. I wore shorts when I got back to the dorm. Same thing for cardigans and heavier shirts. There wasn't a ton of overlap between what I wore hanging out in the dorm versus what I wore in the office, because otherwise I would have frozen in the office or died of heat stroke in the dorm.
4. Take advantage of air- conditioned places.
This is something I wish I had done more of. Go to your air-conditioned lounge. If you have the time and money, go hang out at a coffee place or restaurant for five hours. You won't regret being able to say you don't feel sweaty, slimy, and altogether disgusting for a few hours everyday outside of work.
Also, be thankful that you have air conditioning when you have it. Not just because it makes you more comfortable, but it's a big thing to have that we often take advantage of. There are bigger problems in the world than not having air conditioning, so you also can't let a lack of it ruin your day.
