My recent big project was on the Albatross bird where NGS is doing a bolus dissection on-line so I spent a week or so researching the bird and marine debris. The poor things cannot distinguish the difference between trash and food and due to humans being humans all of the trash that winds up in the Pacific currents reach the Midway Atoll and the birds often die due to starvation, asphyxiation, and/or psychological trauma of not being able to regurgitate the food its body cannot process.
I also set up meetings with the photographers, wrote a photo shoot list, and am currently making sure 'everything' is ready for the big day (December 6).
At the meeting with the photographers I wanted to scream. I spent copious amounts of time making sure everything was set, researching how to write a photo shoot list, and trying to make everything as coherent as possible considering I have absolutely no background in photography.
When the meeting began one of my bosses lives in another state and we needed to conference call her in - that was a fight and a half because my other boss did not think it was necessary even though she is not the one creating the educational material on-line. With the help of another staff member I finally convinced everyone that the phone call needed to be made.
The next annoyance was creating a 'list' that was basically thrown out the window. The photographers basically wrote everything over from scratch even though if they had spent 2 minutes reading over my list we could have saved a half hour of everyones time.
Overall the meeting felt like a giant time waster and was probably the worst day I have had at work which in retrospect was not that bad of a day it is just frustrating when you are given 'special' jobs despite the fact that you are an intern but then your work is disregarded because you are an intern.
So I have decided to make a list, of the good and the bad because even though I am ready to move on and go back home/to Maine I think it is always good to go over what you've learned and how you've grown.
_______________________________
Pros:
Experience
The education work has helped guide me to further know what I do and do not want to do as a career (namely helping me realize I want to go into enviro. ed and NOT sit at a desk all day)
The free talks, movies, etc.
Meeting explorers and hearing their stories
Meeting the other interns and being surrounded by people who all have a similar academic interest as I do and find the world fascinating
Cons:
Name - I am so sick of having to pause any time I mention I intern with NGS - I usually don't say the name anymore unless I am asked because all the 'oh that's my dream job', 'you're so lucky', etc. gets tiresome after awhile.
Office setting
'You are the chosen one' attitude. Yes, I am one of ten, yes, I work extremely hard, yes, I have great professors that have helped me get here, no, it does not define who I am and I am certainly not a chose one.
One of the other interns has been told repeatedly that if she leaves NGS now without trying to get a contract is practically committing career suicide because no other name will be as good as NGS. That is absurd.
If you do not love your job and your heart is not in it, then it is not the job for you. I think that is a big flaw in our society. I plan on doing what I love because it makes me happy, not because there is a precious name attached.
I felt the same about choosing college. Is UMF well known for geography? No, it's known for education - has UMF given me opportunities because I reach out and try my hardest? Yes.
What have I learned most?
Names are not everything
What have I learned about myself?
I can live in a city and for the most part it has been a lot of fun/ I would recommend to anyone to branch out of their living comfort zones.
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