“It’s all about the experience.” “Those internships will get you a job when you graduate.” It was phrases like those that began haunting me in my sleep and continuously ran through my head as I began my journey to find an internship for the summer. I made a professional resume in January thinking I was way ahead of the game and could find an internship no problem for the summer. I sent my first application out in January and from there it became a never ending cycle.

I sent an application out to my dream internship first with high hopes. After not hearing back for a couple weeks and looking at the necessary qualifications, I realized I was probably not the experienced candidate they were looking for and told myself I needed to move on and keep looking, and that is exactly what I did. People also told me to just take any internship I could get since they are so competitive. But I was determined to find one that I liked.

Being a Communications Studies major, I felt as if the options were endless. I just needed to find one that I liked and interested me. As I sent out more applications, wrote endless cover letters and personal essays, I started feeling hopeless. I had several interviews in which the answer was no due to a better candidate. Sometimes I wouldn't even get to have an interview, and they would just email me and tell me no, or just no response in return. I started feeling hopeless and down on myself wondering why no one wanted me or why I wasn’t qualified enough. I saw so many people posting on social media about the internships they were getting and the job experiences they had. I began to start looking online for part time jobs this summer feeling as if my opportunity would never come.

In the middle of March, I began trying to make connections through my university. I started going to the career center for help in finding an internship, working on my resume, etc. Then one night I was at an alumni panel where they were giving advice to current communications students. There was one alum there that somehow knew exactly what was going on in my head. She told all of us not to worry if we don't get internships right away, she herself didn't have one until Spring Semester of her senior year and now she is very successful in the field and has rapidly moved up. She told us not to focus on what others were doing and just worry about our own success. This was the best advice I could have ever gotten that night!

I took her advice and went forward still trying to find one for the summer, but keeping an open mind about other opportunities and chances I would have to find one if the summer did not work out. I believe this positivity is definitely what helped me to find not only one but two internships! I was more confident in interviews and told myself it was okay if they said no. Getting those two offers was one of the best days of my lives and this whole process was certainly a learning experience professionally and in my own personal life. I hope that anyone who is feeling discouraged or maybe feels as if they are behind the curve can see from this article that everyone goes through it and your time will come!