Remember how I said I get overly ambitious sometimes? Yeah, the newspaper internship wasn't the only result of my temporary boredom. I also called up the Texas Office of the Attorney General and booked a gig working for them for no pay. I introduce to you the best intern the Child Support Division of the OAG has ever seen –– me.
I've always been interested in working an office job. It seems the right amount of mundane, boring work that would allow me to feel like an adult while pursuing another more suitable career on the side, like music or writing. So I took this internship as an opportunity to see what it would actually be like to work in an office, and I've gotta say, it's been so different from what I expected that I don't know if I like or dislike it.
I've only been there for three weeks, but I've been doing things that I never considered doing. I make copies of court summons, I call people to remind them that they have court soon, and I interact with the other employees who actually get paid to work there.
What I've learned so far is that people like work that makes them feel as though they've made a difference. At the OAG, we do this through ordering people to pay child support, and for a lot of people, that's a big deal. It's great to help children and low-income families make ends meet. It's great to learn about people and how to work with them, but what's not so great is the very thing I thought I wanted, i.e. the mundaneness.
I suppose I'm just naturally a restless person. I want to leave my desk to try new things, go to different places, see as much of my surroundings as possible. So when I sit and make calls for four hours straight, I turn into someone else--the dreaded office drone. I lose all personality and am left with my physical capability to perform tasks that a computer will probably take over within the next seven years.
The work I'm doing with the OAG is important and necessary, and I don't regret forcing myself into it. I needed to see what it would be like to grow up, and I did. In the end, though, I'm happy with my path as a journalist, even though I'll probably be extremely busy and drastically underpaid for a majority of my life.
The employees at the OAG are happy because they have families of their own, get home at 5:30 and have plenty of vacation time. That's what a lot of people want, and I in no way discount that dream; It's just not mine.
So I'm excited to see new things and go new places. If I can help it, I'll try to avoid sitting behind a desk, chatting with coworkers about my kids, and not living my dream.
I guess we'll wait and see.