I have planned on becoming an orthopedic surgeon since I was 4 years old. That being said, I never dreamed I would EVER find myself sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen for hours on end, but here I sit, staring at not one, but two monitors writing this article on my lunch break.
This summer I was offered the opportunity, keeping the company name private, to work at a leasing company as a collections intern. As the intern, I expected to be bossed around to do everyone's busy work and fetch coffee like in the movies. However, that would be fun compared to what I do.
After only a few days of training I was told to start making calls alone. No big deal, right? Except said calls are collection calls. People aren't exactly friendly on the other end of the line, and I had no idea what to say to them to explain why they owe my company money.
Okay. It took a few days, but I understand the system now. So now I'm content, right?
NO!
If one more person tells me that I need to "get my sh*t together," or cusses at me and calls me vulgar names before I can even tell them what company I'm calling from, I might admit myself into a psych ward. I honestly didn't realize how truly dumb America is on average until I started making these calls. Half of them don't know what the accounts payable department is. How can people live 25+ years of life, and 1. never heard of a/p and 2. not be able to figure it out by the name? Accounts payable = department that pays off accounts. Wow. That was hard.
I'm not an awful person. I would even call myself nice in situations where I need to be, but this internship has brought the absolute worst out in me. It has proven to me I could never live my life in an office. You might be asking, "doesn't a surgeon usually have an office?" Yes. Yes, they do. Their office is used to sit down and relax after standing for 13 hours doing surgery, to take notes, or dictate, procedures, or office visits. Otherwise, a surgeon is on their feet roaming from operating rooms to recovery rooms, to follow-up appointments.
I won't lie about it, I've doubted my future a time or two. I've questioned if I want to go to school for six extra years just to be a doctor. I've wondered if I really want to put myself through the agony of studying for the MCATs and then studying for my boards a few years later.
Every so often, those questions are answered and I'm pushed a little harder to achieve what I set out to do when I was 4. This internship is one of those things, so despite the amount of hatred I have for it, I thank the customers I call on a daily basis, this computer screen for giving me at least one migraine a week, and even the customers who cuss me up one side and down the other to make my head ache a little bit more.
Because of them, I will never stray away from what I want to do. I will go to school for 6 extra years, I will study my life away, and I will be an outstanding orthopedic surgeon.
So again, to all the people who have made this intern hell for me,
Thank You.
Sincerely,
That chick with a killer migraine
