breakthesky.neti'll break the sky, for you and i are going nowhere.

Yesterday was my first day as an intern at an international news broadcasting agency. Out of everything I have on my plate this semester, this internship was the thing I was looking forward to the most. It’s the first internship I’ve ever had and it also has the added bonus of having all the qualities of a dream internship for me, so I was a combination of nerves and excitement when my first day to intern rolled around.

I was nervous for nothing, because it was awesome. I know it’s usually a little premature to declare something to be awesome on day one and I am sure there will be days where I get frustrated or overwhelmed but overall, I’m pretty positive that I’m going to love my internship. I get to write press releases that get published on the agency’s website, assist in different language programs, lead tours of the studio, prepare promotional/informational packets, answer incoming calls from the public… the list goes on. It’s very much a hands-on, “real work experience” type of internship because I was reassured on multiple occasions that I will rarely, if ever, have to make photocopies or run errands or fetch my supervisors coffee or do other “grunt work.” That’s fantastic, especially considering that I am only in my second year of college and I’ve never had previous internship experience!

As if all that weren’t awesome enough, I get my own work email and desk/office space and employee/intern ID! Man, between that and my business card, name tag and (shared) email address at my other job, I’m liking my forays into the business/working world!

As I begin to prep for the start of the 2010 spring semester tomorrow, I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s in store for me for the next five months or so. I have a lot lined up and while I actually am excited for all of it, it’s a little overwhelming. Krissy recently told me that she didn’t know how I found the time to sit down. While it was a joke, I think she might have a point…

Classes-wise, I am taking a full course load of five classes. Three are for my major/minor¹, one for a General Education requirement and one as an elective. It’s not going to be a particularly easy semester, especially as I’m starting to get into the heart of both my major and minor, but every single class is one that I want to take. I’m actually interested in all of these subjects, which will make a huge difference when it comes to my motivation towards academics this semester².

In addition to my classes, I am also working this semester. I have an on-campus job as a peer advisor (there are six of us total) in my school’s career center where I hold drop-in hours for students to get their resumes and cover letters critiqued, present in classrooms to promote the career center’s resources and facilitate workshops about all things job search related. It’s an amazing job; I love it. I’m incredibly lucky to be able to work in such a professional environment where I can establish contacts and network with experts while getting paid!

I also landed an internship this semester as the public relations intern for an international news broadcasting agency. I was interviewed for the position last month and was offered the job not even five minutes into my interview, which was a pretty big boost to my self-esteem! I’ll be drafting press releases, communicating with outside media, assisting with event planning and promoting different projects. This internship is what I am most excited for this semester as I want to work in the field of PR on an international scale and I’ll be able to experience just that as an intern at this agency. I’m even hoping I’ll even be able to assist in the Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese programs as I have the language skills to do so, although really, just being able to intern there is a huge boost to my career experience and resume.

I still maintain my web editor position of my school’s literary magazine³ but I’ve quit my museum job. I didn’t have the time for that as well as my internship, and I valued my internship more than my museum gig. I figure I’ve enough on my plate already without working at the museum, as I still have to fit in time to eat, sleep and oh, have a social life…

If I disappear from the blogosphere, you’ll know it’s because I’m insanely busy⁴. It’s going to be an absolutely crazy semester… but I’m hoping it’ll be the best one yet.

1. I’m a Public Communication student with a minor in the Chinese Language. [↩]
2. Last semester I had to take micro for a GenEd requirement, and I just about died because I discovered that my brain is most certainly not wired for econ. [↩]
3. I’ve been bumped up to Web Editor fromn Assistant Web Editor. [↩]
4. I’m really hoping it won’t come to that, though. That’s part of the reason why the blogging schedule is no more! [↩]

Ever since summer ended and the school year began, I’ve been insanely busy. I have a full course load, a part-time job, a web editor position, and a new job I start in roughly two weeks. This is just everything I have going on in my academic and work life – not that I have a lot going on in my personal and social life save for one major development, but it’s still a lot to handle!

I’ve decided that now is as good a time as any to start cutting down on my responsibilities in life and to begin prioritizing, both online and offline. I’ve always been fairly good at prioritizing, and now I have to look at everything I am currently involved in and try and put them in some sort of priority-oriented list so I can figure out what can stay and what has to go. I want to try and “trim the fat,” so to speak, because if I don’t I’ll be stretched too thin and that’ll only lead to disaster. I like being busy, but I dislike being overly stressed. I already don’t have the time to write¹ or read books of my own choosing, I really only see my friends during mealtimes², and I am barely finding the right amount of time to focus on the aforementioned major development in my personal life!

I’ve made a few decisions as to what to do offline already, such as only remain active in the organizations/clubs that I truly feel passionate about rather than am merely interested in as well as not commit to anything more than I can handle in the future. In terms of my offline life, I’m looking at cutting down what time I spend on message boards. I’m also leaning towards quitting the q*bee as it’s just one more commitment that I know I can’t keep up with.

All of these ideas as to what fat to trim are still mainly ideas at the moment. I’m still working on sorting what is important, what is extra, and what is necessary in my life. There have been a lot of changes in a short amount of time, some of them unexpected, and now I have to adjust my life accordingly. It’s not going to be easy, but I know it must be done.

1. I have not touched my work-in-progress novel since I left for school in mid-August. [↩]
2. My friends and I are all super busy; we only really have the time to sit down and talk during meals because otherwise we’re too busy doing work. [↩]