Expect The Unexpected
“So, where are you working?” she asked. It was early November, 2020, and I was connecting with a friend over Zoom. “Funny story about that, actually,” I responded, smiling. “Have you ever had an internship just kind of ~happen~?”
If you had asked me when I graduated from high school if I wanted to eventually have a Communications internship, I would have said an unequivocal, resounding “no!”. I was incredibly disappointed that my dream schools, Boston University, Northeastern, NYU, and, my top choice, Emerson, had all either never granted admission or offered staggeringly low amounts in terms of scholarships/grants. I was prepared to attend UNH at Manchester, but I wasn’t thrilled about it — Communication Arts wasn’t Journalism or Theatre, the combination of majors I had applied to study. Of course, as time went on, I fell in love with UNH. I had a small but mighty group of friends, was able to work and perform, and only had a 10- minute commute. Parking issues notwithstanding, it ended up being good.
I did, however, want to leave. As much as UNHM did for me, I knew I couldn’t get the Journalism experience I wanted. Enter Suffolk University, a school I hadn’t heard of until my sophomore year at UNHM. I applied just like I did to the other schools — thinking it would be another waste of an application fee, but, to my surprise, Suffolk gave me a large scholarship because I was a transfer student as well as similar small grants like the other schools had. I didn’t even have time to tour the whole school — the summer of 2019 was packed with my internship with New Hampshire Public Radio, volunteering in Mexico, and traveling to the United Nations conference in Salt Lake City. I had about three weeks to get everything in order.
It was a good Fall semester, and was shaping up to be a good Spring. I was happy with my classes, I had found my people in the sketch comedy group, and was still able to commute back and forth to New Hampshire via the Boston Express bus for ongoing theatre projects and cuddles with my dog over the weekend. We all left for Spring Break hopeful — the week before Break, almost a full year ago now, I had my standard rehearsal with Who’s Askin’?, the sketch comedy troupe on campus. We talked about plans for what we’d do upon our return — we had a show coming up at Improv Boston, after all, and needed to be ready! I cleared out all the perishables in my fridge and packed to leave for Georgia — I wanted to go to the Aquarium, try some restaurants, and explore with my older siblings. The weekend, they told me I might want to consider a mask of some kind, an “N-93”, or was it a 94? I Googled this new thing — some kind of virus that was only affecting the elderly and immunocompromised. “I’ll be fine,” I wrote over Facebook messenger, “it looks like hospitals need them more, anyways.” So I flew down, and what started as an average week quickly turned into canceling plans, buying hand sanitizer in large quantities, and, eventually, being informed over email that I’d have to be out of the dorms by March 17. My flight back to Boston didn’t land until the late evening of the 16th, so I spent nearly 2 hours changing my flight.
Why all this backstory?
In less than a year, I moved from my childhood home to Boston and then back again, and basically saw everything that I’d considered quintessential to the college experience disappear. In my time at Suffolk, I went to two parties (theatre kid parties, nothing crazy!) and a few events, but was largely giving myself time to learn the city and get used to being on my own. I had only sent out a few internship applications at all, and none of them garnered a response. I knew that as time went on, there would be other opportunities, job offers, etc.
Instead, I was “stuck” in New Hampshire, and over the summer as racial tensions grew, I ended up joining and helping to form a Black Lives Matter chapter. In another rapid change, I went from attending a Manchester-area rally to speaking at a Nashua rally and then quickly becoming the Communications person there. It was at that first rally, I found out months later, that I came onto Skillsoft’s radar through Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek (Chief Marketing Officer) — she’d seen me speak.
I wasn’t used to going through a hiring process over the phone or over Zoom, and I had even less of an idea of what remote work looked like (even as my dad has worked from home for half of my life and my mom had just, luckily enough, begun doing so in January 2020.) Again, just like with school and the onset of coronavirusCOVID-19, I had no idea what to expect.
What I found was countless individuals ready to help me in whatever way I needed. From the other interns making me feel welcome at once to my manager, Jen, stepping me through processes that I wasn’t used to, to the half-dozen folx helping me with a myriad of tech issues. While my work personally had little to do with the larger learning platform that Skillsoft has, I learned throughout my time. The AGILE mindset doesn’t come easily to me — I can look like a whirlwind to the outside world because I am naturally creative with a big personality but being flexible in ways that I haven’t already worked out in my mind doesn’t come naturally to me, at all. I was challenged every time I logged on to Teams to consistently adjust my perception of what the day would hold and respond accordingly.
I made a lot of mistakes, too, something I wasn’t accustomed to — now, that is not to say that I’m some genius, it’s just that, in other positions, I’ve had more experience or time for outside research. In this case, I was a fish out of water many times, and I had to get more comfortable with asking for help and owning up to mistakes.
Friendships suffered during the first few months of the pandemic — there were some people I know who are still very emotionally isolated. I was determined not to be that way, and I think the other interns were as well. Even though we didn’t all connect often, we managed to laugh together every time we met, and I consider these women friends even though I have absolutely no idea what they look like from the waist down.
In the end, my tenure at Skillsoft closes with another unexpected turn of events — two (unpaid) internships in Journalism, one of which is a requirement for graduation. I didn’t expect to be selected — I’d sent out applications to the few places still hiring, and had accepted the thought that, if, by some miracle, I could find an internship that I met the requirements for, it would go to someone else. In getting to write for Source Media and report for Suffolk In The City/NECN, I get to take the practicals that I learned studying Communication Arts and add them to the industry knowledge I’ve learned at Suffolk. In my next job application, I’ll be able to say that I helped publish a podcast from a world-leader in education, and that along the way I was challenged and shaped into, I hope, a better teammate. I hope I can reflect the gratitude I have for the people I’ve meant, the projects I’ve been invited to join, and the five months of learning I’ve been honored enough to have here.
When I didn’t get into those schools, when I studied Communications, when I transferred to Boston, when I left Boston, when I joined Black Lives Matter Nashua, I had no idea where it would lead me. I could not be more grateful that it lead me to Skillsoft.
