EOU Internship Week 7

Another week here and gone. This summer is flying by way too fast! I had another busy week at work. I’m starting to think about how projects need to be wrapped up by the time I have to leave. It’s a little daunting at the moment, and it will all work out in the end. I spent a lot of my week work on edits to the Student Code of Conduct, along with working on projects with our OrgSync and MAP Works software programs.

It’s starting to really sink in that this summer is about so much more than my internship position. I’ve enjoyed working in a different school, with different people, and in a different department. At the same time, I challenged myself to put myself in a completely foreign environment (aka: Oregon) to have the opportunity to grow as a person. I feel that I’ve met that challenge. However, I can’t really put it all into words at the moment. I do know that I have been more reflective about work, life, etc., on a more consistent basis. Maybe in August or September I’ll really know what this summer was all about. I am just happy that I decided to seek out an opportunity that wasn’t required of me for my grad program. I did it because I wanted to have a different experience. Besides having an internship, the real goal of this summer was to travel. The want to travel has turned into a love of traveling. I’m already starting to think about where I want to go next summer (grad present to myself!).

I had dinner at a colleague’s house on Thursday night. He lives up on Mt. Emily just outside of town. We all sat out on the deck and watched the sun set. It was so relaxing. My supervisor was at dinner as well. She was asking about what my expectations had been going into this whole experience. I was honest with her and said that I really didn’t have any set expectations. I knew the summer would leave a permanent mark on me and my perspective on life, and that was (and still is) a huge unknown answer. I guess all this rambling means: it’s okay not to know what the end result will be when you jump into something new. That’s why it’s called a leap of faith. Or put another way: great reward does not come without great risk.

I just wanted to leave you with this one last fun thing. We had the Monty mascot costume in our office this week. Our student worker, Tasha, was gracious enough to model part of it for me!