This week, I started interning for the very first time. My position features an individual cubicle, emails, Microsoft Excel, and a busy parking garage. It's interesting to suddenly find myself acting like the adults we admired from our desks in school. I wake up early, work from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., drinking coffee and researching grant applications. While deciding between studying in the library or my dorm room was a normal activity just two weeks ago, a summer with an internship and a paying job have become my new reality.
Despite the importance of staying young, I think the responsibilities that come along with these adult-like activities can only be beneficial. I have only been working for five days, but I can already tell how important each lesson I learn can be for the future. While a college education is vital, the real-life experience I am anticipating that I will get, is helping me see the world in an entirely new way. It's somewhat intimidating to walk into an office full of real adults and try to act as professionally as you can. The whole idea of growing up might seem like something us college students cannot process, but it's vital. The real life experience one receives through an internship or a job can only prepare you for life after graduation.
It's important for students to understand that their lives will not revolve solely around the answers they've memorized from textbooks. While I may not end up writing grant applications for the remainder of my years, the critical thinking, research skills, and confidence to share my own ideas will be helpful to any career I choose to pursue. I think teenagers and college students believe in working toward a specific goal, and while that determination is admirable, we must see how any experiences in the real world can raise us above the rest. You're learning early on how to properly communicate with others, build confidence in your creativity, ask important questions, and of course: learn. After all, we're still students. The greatest thing that an internship or job can do for you is teach. You might learn how to correctly format software. You might learn how to formally address others in a company. You might learn what it is you are passionate about.
I encourage others reading this to seek opportunities beyond his or her comfort zones. I'll admit, I was nervous on the first day of my internship, but I felt extremely proud of the questions I asked and the new environment I faced. I feel very lucky to have been blessed with both an internship and job this summer, and while I've only been working for a week, I already understand how progress can only be made through experience. I am not a perfect writer, and while perfection might never be achieved, experience can only teach me how to improve.
After graduation, I'll hopefully find myself working as much as possible, and this internship only reminds me that adulthood isn't as far away as we sometimes wish. It seems frightening, but looking ahead can be extremely rewarding. I hope to write again about how much I will learn in the next 12 weeks, but until then, my eagerness will continue to make each day feel important. It's the opportunities that we take advantage of now that provide opportunities in the future, and I see this summer as a perfect time to start taking full advantage of them.
