Hi readers!
I hope everyone’s start of the semester has been off to a great start, or the start of fall has treated you well. This semester I’m heading into my second year on campus, with four more semesters to go before I graduate. It seems weird to be halfway through my time here already, but regardless, I enjoy every minute.
This semester I was supposed to have a busy class workload with around 18 semester hours; however, many things changed with my schedule this semester.
Firstly, I added and dropped about three classes. I had a studio class that wasn’t working for me, a Spanish class I didn’t have time for, and an art history course I enrolled in two weeks after the start date. This was terrifying, as I hate not knowing things and understanding my schedule; however, it went a lot more smoothly than I realized, and everything worked out perfectly. Now, I’m taking two studio courses, a biology gen-ed, and an art history course.
Alongside this, however, I was given the opportunity to intern at The Englert Theatre as a graphic design intern for the year! I saw the listing for the position two weeks before school started, and learned of my start date the first week of school. I’m currently trying to figure out how to navigate school, my regular part-time job, and now my internship, time- and productivity-wise. I was always terrified to get an internship, but now as I’m heading into my second month at Englert, I’ve learned a couple of things that make it easier.
Firstly, time management is a learned skill, not a given. If you look at my Google Calendar, it looks like I’m busy from 7am all the way to 11pm, but I’m really blocking off time in my day to focus on productivity and certain things like homework, internship stuff, and general things. It’s definitely been a learning curve on how to work on things in a timely and designated manner; however, now that I’ve been focusing on it, it feels a lot better to navigate.
Secondly, it’s okay to not do anything. I’m a huge football fan, and you can find me tailgating and running around near Kinnick every Saturday. However, I get terrified to go to the football games this semester, as I always have something to do. So for the first few games, yes, you would see me at Kinnick, but I would be on my phone writing an essay and not paying attention to my friends. I started forgetting the fun of game days, and was only absorbed in what I needed to do. So to combat that, I made my Fridays a jam-packed focus day, making my Saturday more pleasurable as I had fewer things to worry about.
Lastly, you earned this! I’ve had a lot of imposter syndrome in this internship, as I have a lot of questions, don’t know that many things, and constantly have to fix things when my boss says no. It started making me think I didn’t know what I was doing and regretting doing the internship. However, one of my coworkers noticed my hesitance building and said to me, “We chose you because you’re Harper, not a manufactured robot.” So whenever you achieve or gain something, know that it was given or accomplished because you did it as yourself, not as someone else.
Let’s see how the rest of this semester goes, and I hope the start of your October is full of pumpkins and cool weather!
