For the past three months, I have worked with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I went in knowing I would be working on their Bike MS events and their social media. Of course me being me I thought that meant I would just be sitting behind a desk on a computer all day with an occasional phone call to some random place to either get lunch for someone or for information about something for the event. After accepting the internship and actually getting into it, I was completely wrong and learned quickly that I would have to face some obscure fears.
When I say wrong, I mean wrong in a good way. Instead of being a coffee grabbing, appointment scheduling, sit at a desk and speak when spoken to only secretary, I was given my own work space with my own task list.
When I started, I was started slowly. I would get an email with my list of things to do before I left for the day. Mostly it be work on getting posts ready and easily pluggable for social media. This was mostly using my own creativity and finding photos and pictures of quotes on google as well as actually scrolling through old photos on social media to use. After the first two weeks I got a call from my supervisor. She explained that I would now have to make some phone calls and write some emails to find sponsors, rest stops, and anything else that was needed. Anyone who knows me knows I hate making cold calls. I still refused to call to just order food when with friends. I don't know why but I just always refused to call I would always prefer text or email. But because I don't have the choice I had to suck it up and make the calls.
Now as I picked up the phone I would take a deep breath and have to think to myself that they would never meet me in person and that I can not rush the calls because it would sound like I was nervous and unprofessional. The first few calls were nerve-racking for someone like me who had never done it before. I did the calls and hoped that was all I had to do for a while. Once again I was wrong.
Fast forward to the next time I had to work. I get in log into the computer and check my email like normal. I received the email from my supervisor like normal but there was a catch. Attached to it was about four or five documents loaded with phone numbers. Apparently something happened to someone in another office and they needed me to make her calls for the Walk MS (which I did not think I would need to work on ever). This is when my nerves started to act like a Drake song and went "zero to a hundred real quick." I did what I did the week before and did the calls. What I learned was they were getting easier to make as I went down the list and that my fear was fading and I was remaining calm.
Now there was still one fear I had and that was going into a store or some places and asking about becoming a sponsor or if they could hang posters and have some hand outs in person. This fear was a little more stronger than the phone calls because I could not stand talking to random people. I had done recruiting for crew but that was with someone and was talking to someone my own age this was talking to people who were probably 20 years older or more about helping a nonprofit they've never heard of in their stores. I started with the two that the society had worked with in the past because I knew they would be easy to talk to because they knew who I was working for. After that I had to go to random stores and try to convince them to hang up a poster. This is where my heart would start to feel as if it was beating out of my chest. Unfortunately most of the places I went to gave me a rejection or the "My manager is not in right now." line. Although this happened it got easier to go into the stores and talk to random people and try to get them to put up a sign. Luckily enough I did find a few that said yes.
The objective of an internship is to help you prepare for the real world so you know somehow what you are doing to an extent. Working as in intern for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society was an experience I would not claim to be a waste of time because I was fortunate enough that even with an error here and there, I was put in the open and treated like I was actually part of the organization instead of the intern that sits in the corner and gets everyone coffee. I was also able to help make the events that help people in Upstate New York who live with multiple sclerosis possible meaning that on top of gaining experience and facing my fears I was able to help make a difference for a great cause.
