Summers might mean beach trips and Netflix marathons for some, but for others, it’s the chance you get at kick starting your career with a little internship experience. No matter where you are interning, every fresh face can relate to the mixture of terror and excitement that plagues you on day one. Here are thirteen parts of the first day at an internship, as told by the cynically funny adult sitcom, Bojack Horseman.
1. Waking up and having a million scenarios run through your head about how fantastically or terribly today could go.
2. Getting dressed and trying to figure out how to communicate “professional” and “I swear I know what I am doing” through your clothes.
"You gotta get your s*** together."
3. Leaving ridiculously early and arriving ridiculously early because you are paranoid that some curveball will be thrown your way on the morning commute.
So now you’re stuck waiting in the parking lot until the office actually opens.
4. Meeting the other interns and your coworkers and suddenly feeling like everyone is more experienced/older/smarter/cooler than you.
*Gulp*
5. Starting your new role with glorified secretarial work and wondering what you’re doing with your life while simultaneously resolving to be the best at picking up coffees and answering phones.
6. Having lunch and feeling like you’re back in high school at the cafeteria.
Where do the cool kids sit? Is it socially acceptable to have packed a lunch?
7. Finding ways to pass the downtime in your cubicle.
Arrange the highlighters by color? Check. Sharpen all the pencils? Check. Make a giant paperclip chain? Check. Contemplate what you are doing with your life and if this is your inevitable future? Check, check.
8. Getting your first *real* assignment and trying to act chill while inside you are exploding with both the excitement and the pressure.
9. Finally making a connection with a fellow intern as you both freak out over how nervous you are about starting the job.
Basically you are bonded now by your mutual fear of answering the office phones - hooray! #bffs
10. Checking the time and realizing the work day is over, and how it went by wayyyy faster than you thought possible.
Wait, does this mean I actually enjoyed my first day? Time flies when you’re having fun.
11. Driving back home and facing your first true encounter with rush hour.
But it’s okay, because you’re too busy overanalyzing the last eight hours of your day and reliving each possible mistake you made.
12. Calling your parents to tell them about your first day “on the job” and trying not to sound too enthusiastic even though you can’t help but feel like a real adult.
“Oh, yeah, I was just assigned my first story to write. No biggie.” *feels like a career badass*
13. Waking up the next day and smiling because, let’s face it, you are so grateful and pumped to be at this internship.
Because you secretly love every grueling, challenging, new moment of it.