This last week I started my first every internship working for an Architecture firm. I really feel like I’m moving into the real world. Even though when you turn 18 you gain the title of "adult," I would argue that you don’t truly become an adult until you come face to face with a disgruntled boss, mundane work duties, and overdue bills.
I faced two out of those three things this week. I still don’t pay my bills yet. It’ll be a truly sad day when I completely move into adulthood and start budgeting money to make ends meet. Anyways, getting back to the point, this week I had to deal with having very mundane jobs.
I was the person responsible for all the little things no one else wanted to b bothered with or was too important to be bothered with. As much as this bothered me, now reflecting back on it I suppose I make the day that much easier for my colleagues around me. I may not feel like what I do is making a huge impact on the overall company, but if I add up all the things I add to the group it makes a big difference. That’s a contingency of life as an adult. We aren’t all going to change the world with our jobs, burn as an adult you’ve got to accept that what you do is at least having somebody affect the people around you.
I also came face to face with every employee's worse nightmare, an ANGRY boss. I was so scared, because how was my boss already mad at me and I hadn’t even been at that job for a week. I truly thought I had failed and was about to get fired. I saw my whole future flash in front of my eyes. I pictured myself never being able to be successful, because if I wasn’t even to keep the boss happy for a week how did I expect to get anywhere. Turns out my mistake wasn’t a major on, and my boss is a little more hotheaded than others.
The relief I felt after my boss walked away from me cannot be put into words. That experience also taught me a lesson about adulthood. It taught me that not only should I be more confident in myself, but that I should trust that if something doesn’t go as I planned it that doesn’t mean my life isn’t over. I wasn’t acting like a kid thinking that one mistake at working would me a lifetime of regrets, but adults actually make tons of mistakes.
Being an architecture intern is a whole lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun. I’m starting to learn a lot about what it means to be an adult, and I get to do work that helps me prepare for my next year of schooling. I’m also starting to grow into a proper adult, even though I’d rather stay 18 forever. Or maybe I can accept 21. When I wasn’t little I couldn’t wait to be an adult and now that I’ve tasted a small piece of true adulthood I want to run back to being a kid.
