Hi everyone! August has arrived and even though it’s only the first week of the month, unfortunately, it’s the last week of my summer internship. I began this journey with 12 long weeks ahead of me that could’ve been extremely awful or extremely wonderful and I’m very blessed to say it’s been one of the best experiences of my life.
For the last few months, I’ve had the opportunity of being an intern at a marketing firm in Annapolis, Maryland. They (whom will remain unnamed for privacy reasons) are a full-service marketing firm that services clients such as Duracell, Splenda, and Mars Drinks (plus many others). I went into the job thinking I would mainly shadow and assist my co-workers with whatever small tasks they needed help with but I thought wrong. From the moment I walked in the building on my first day, I have been working on things that I’ll actually be doing in my career. How cool! From the little meetings I’d had before beginning the summer, I knew my days wouldn’t usually be filled doing typical intern tasks such as doing coffee runs and making copies, but I had no idea the level of respect and kindness I would receive from the employees at this company. Throughout this internship, I’ve been challenged more than I thought I ever could be in such a short amount of time. In addition to being challenged design-wise, I feel like the classes I’ve taken at JMU helped prepare me for this summer, and I also feel that this internship will help me in my future classes and that’s a really neat feeling!
This internship has also greatly improved my design self-esteem. One of the classes I took this past year was pretty much a class version of this internship. I was designing invitations, infographics, logos, etc. and I hated it. My professor didn’t like my style of design and the comments and grades I received made me rethink my future so much that I didn’t even have an interest in graphic design anymore. So, when I got here this summer, I was secretly hoping I’d mostly work with employees in other positions such as the copy editors and trade marketing professionals. However, I ended up falling into the design position and it couldn’t have turned out better! Not only did I realize that what I originally wanted to do is still what I want to do, but I realized I have the drive and the talent to actually be able to do it. This summer, one of my designs was actually chosen for a company’s new logo! Your future does not depend on the opinions of one person and you should never forget that.
Ending this internship, I’m kind of in a state where I feel so ready and prepared and excited for my future that I just want to be in it already! I want to be working full time at a job I love and traveling on the weekends, and I’m already doing that! It’s definitely going to be difficult driving away from here on Friday and heading back to school at the end of the month but that just means I’m that much closer to being where I want to be.
Although I don’t think anyone from the company will ever read this, I’d like to thank them as a whole for maintaining such an open and friendly environment that was so inviting and comforting to me this summer. Incredibly, I’ve been invited back to intern again over my winter break, so it won’t be long before I’m back at it and you can trust that I will be counting down the days until I return!
Thank you for reading this post and please let me know in the comments if you had a great summer internship as well! See you next week! 🙂
