Earlier this year, I applied to an internship program in the nation’s capital. Washington, D.C, safe to say, is a city of power, influence and the source of aspiration for tens of thousands of college students and graduates across the country. Just getting into this program would put me in the midst of a competitive and cutthroat city. When I found out that I was accepted into this program, I was stunned. Never before had I taken part in a program like this before.

Another factor that led me to apply for this summer program was the fact that, unlike so many of my other friends who chose to go abroad for a semester, I decided to remain stateside. Originally, I had wanted to go to some far-flung country and live there for four-months and experience a true sense of the expatriate experience -- much like my literary idols, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. But that was not in the works.

I only had eight semesters of college. Why not make them most of all eight?

Of course, there are many of my friends and those who went abroad who loved their experiences. I decided that my experience would be just as dynamic.

It was a conscious decision that took awhile to assemble my application and eventually apply to this program and end up not just working in Washington, D.C. but also living and learning and experiencing all the happenings within our nation’s capital. As a rising senior, I knew it was time to get professional experience in a growing competitive job market. In the weeks leading up to this experience, I find myself growing restless and nervous of spending the summer in a major American city with new people and new places.

Sure, I’ve gone to school in a state capital for the past three years. You would think, “What’s there to worry about?” Many things. One thing is that Providence, my college city, is one of the smallest state capitals in the country. Going from a city of approximately 170,000 to a metropolitan area significantly larger than that is intimidating. I’ve had three-years to grow and make connections within the city, whereas I will have to start over all again and be truly on my own -- a feeling I haven’t felt since the start of freshman year. No friends, no family either to guide me.

And yet, besides those anxieties, the next two-months spent in Washington will be two incredible months of open opportunities and a chance to witness open hearings, try new foods, explore a new area of the country and wake up in a city that makes history every single day. I know if I ever get lonely or lost, I will have my faith and my three-years of college to help guide me through this program. This will be my summer abroad, a time for me to figure out what I want to do with my life leading up to my senior year. It is a time to work on my professional skills and gain experience in a professional office setting. As a wise man once said to me, “Be open to anything, be attached to nothing.”