My internship this summer is the definition of a "big kid job." The dress code? Business casual. The location? Downtown. The subject matter? Bland.
Don't get me wrong, I'm learning a lot, but when your internship is at a life insurance company and you're 19 and barely know what life insurance is, things are weird.
Everyone is married with kids.
Okay, so most of my coworkers are 10+ years older than me. They're all married and most have kids. I barely know how to do my laundry. The other day they were all sharing stories about stupid stuff their kids do, and I do 90% of it. It was like my own personal roast except I was the only one that knew I was being roasted.
Just poppin' in!
Since my internship is for the summer, I'm only there for three (almost four) months. A lot of my coworkers have worked there for years. My time there is such a small blip. I guess it's just weird to me that I appear in their lives and they influence mine so much in such a short amount of time and then it's over. Just as you start to figure them out, and develop genuine friendships, it's back to school.
Cubicles
This might just be a personal thing. I think cubicles are very weird. Am I alone? Am I out in the open? Will everyone hear me if I fart?
Living in limbo
A summer internship is a scary taste of the real world that you've been sheltered from by the comfortable environment that is college. It's like opposites world. Everything that college students do/want is the opposite of what real-world adults do/want. I don't think any one of my coworkers could name the last time they stayed up past 1 am. In college, being pregnant is a nightmare but in the real world, it's rejoiced. I went to a baby shower yesterday.
Business casual
I don't think that I look particularly young, but when I get into my work clothes, I feel like I'm 12. I just feel way too young to be looking like a young professional! I'm a phony! And just as I start getting used to looking somewhat like a human all the time, it's back to college in sweats and the biggest semi-clean t-shirt available.
Just poppin' in! Part 2
Because I'm poppin' in for such a short amount of time, it's kind of hard for them to give me work. Everything they give me they have to explain multiple facets of it because I'm unfamiliar with everything. And then by the time they're done explaining, they probably just could've done it themselves. It makes me feel bad. And just as you get acquainted enough with everything to where that's not true anymore, it's time to go back to school.
Grown-ups never sleep
At school, I'm used to exerting energy for three hours for class, taking a nap, and then exerting energy for another three hours, and then repeating that until it's time to sleep. At my internship, it is a big kid 8-5! I exert energy for NINE hours straight. It's exhausting and extremely foreign. And just when you get used to the new schedule, you guessed it, time to go back to school.
That being said, I think summer internships are very helpful and that you can learn a lot from them. But being a college kid in an adult world is an adjustment.
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