Internships

I was chatting with my replacement intern the other day. Lots of progress for the big stakeholder meeting we’ve been trying to organize since last December. They had made lots of good connections with big organizations, some of which might even be interested in funding our activities. It sounds like lots have happened just in the one week I’ve been gone.

I couldn’t help but feel a bit left out, a bit jealous (?), and a bit unwilling to consciously admit my pettiness. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new intern (as a person and as a colleague) and how things are moving. It’s just that I really wish I could join in the action. This big stakeholder meeting was my biggest goal during my internship; it was the accumulation of everything that we were working towards. Now, I won’t even get to see how it will unfold.

Internship programs are a little bit cruel.

Maybe it’s because in the past, whenever I’ve thrown myself 120% into something, I’ve always guided it to fruition. If not to the very end, I would at least get to see the results of what I had been working on.

To be really truthful, I would have worked for SCI even at half the wage (where I’ll barely scrap by, with no savings and no expat spending – i.e. eating out at ‘expensive’ places, buying stuff from supermarkets etc), just because I felt so involved and was learning so much. At the same time, as my friend said the other day, “You’re not a student anymore; expect your employers to treat you like a proper employee.”

I guess I’ll have to take the first step into proper employment.