Sitting on the beach. Feeling the soft sand between your toes.The sun is beating down on your face, its warmth seeping through your skin. The splash of the waves against your legs. Cold watermelon in your hand. The moments you don't spend at the beach, you're in bed, bundled up in blankets. Perhaps you invite your best friends over to binge watch the hottest shows on Netflix. With every season of Grey's Anatomy that you finish, you realize your perfectly relaxing summer is almost over.
PSYCHE. Picture this instead:
Waking up to the sound of a buzzing alarm. Hitting snooze to grasp every moment of sleep possible. You're running around your house on a crunch for time. Since you move so fast, coffee spills all over your brand new outfit...which makes you even later than you already were before.
You jump on the highway, get stuck in traffic alongside the hundreds of other cars who are also driving to work. You come running in, out of breath and a little sweaty. Only 5 minutes late today. Now you're sitting in an office with fellow interns. Overly-excited about having your first 'real job'. The walls are grey but you don't care because your youthful motivation lights up the entire office. You sit in an office chair, which is fun to swivel around in when you feel like procrastinating...except sometimes you get dizzy and can't look up at the screen until it passes. oops. Those aches and pains your parents complain about from sitting in an office chair for 8 hours...yup those are real. You find yourself taking the long route to the bathroom just to stretch out your stiff joints.
You spend the day sitting in on meetings, not entirely sure of what's going on. You furiously take notes anyway and pretend like you know what you're doing. The phone sitting on your desk barely rings, but when it does your heart starts to pump way too fast. With every email you respond to, you realize your not-so relaxing summer is almost over and you barely saw the light of day.
This is the scene for those who took on a full-time job and then some this summer.
Even though us job rats didn't spend our summer laying at the beach, we don't regret one second of it. Up until this summer, I've spent my time off relaxing and hanging out with friends. Been there, done that! Sure it's fun to not have responsibilities, but it's also fun to throw myself into brand new situations. Instead of sipping wine coolers by the ocean, I attended corporate events where I seized opportunities to network with corporate leaders. I interacted with other brilliant millennials and learned how to adapt from classroom to office. And...let's not forget the new "professional" wardrobe my mom let me splurge on because dressing to impress is 95% of the game.
Yes, my Instagram game has been weak all summer because a majority of my time is spent working. I don't consider a weak Instagram a loss because I gained much more this summer than a record number of likes on a photo. My experience in the work force was strengthened. The skills I am taught in lecture, were actually put to use for the very first time!
