San Diego. That’s where I’ll potentially be this summer. To prepare, I may have to start watching Anchorman. Which is appropriate, since it’s not only the location of the movie, but also because I’ll be partaking in an internship related to my Broadcast Communications major. But let me rewind a few months.
Around December, I decided the coming summer should be the time to abandon my hometown of Jefferson, Ohio, and seek new experiences elsewhere. Frankly, I’m sick of returning home as a college student, to seek summer employment at the local community center. I need an adventure.
Most people put a bunch of locations on slips of paper, and put those in a hat. Others throw darts at a map. But I already knew where I wanted to be: southern California. More specifically, America’s Finest City. Or at least that’s what Wikipedia says it is.
A summer on the beach, in the sun, and far from home—sounds more than appealing to me. But I needed an excuse not only for myself, but for my parents too. There was that whole pressure to find an internship, and I recognized the value of one. So weeks, even months, were spent pouring over the internet, typing “video+production+internship+san+diego” into google search boxes. Sometimes I hit good responses; most of the time not. Eventually I widened my searches to include terms like “media,” “web,” and “design.” And in time, widened the searches geographically too, thinking Miami or San Francisco wouldn’t be so bad.
Yet I was determined to find that summer, career-related internship in San Diego, and continued to deeper into the depths of the internet. And that’s when, one January day, a pdf file titled “Video Intern” floated onto my screen. It was with a nonprofit called Wildcoast, an organization looking to raise awareness about pollution in the Pacific. I thought that sounded pretty good. The application said they do some work across the border in Tijuana—and I had taken Spanish. Finally, they were hoping for a summer intern to produce television and web content. Perfect.
I called, emailed, and waited.
Meanwhile, I made (small) attempts to apply elsewhere, not wanting to put all of my eggs into the proverbial basket. Additionally, my parents wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t appropriately exhaust all potential avenues. The internship searches continued, but Wildcoast remained in the back of my mind.
Then came the official call, just days ago. They were not only officially offering me that internship, but were also extremely excited to have me on board, given my expertise and talents. Success!
I’ll be spending the next couple months finding work and housing. I’ll have to save every dime, but I have a feeling it’ll be well worth it. Not only will I have an entire summer vacation, but I’ll be gaining priceless career-related experience.
Just don’t tell mom and dad…they wouldn’t enjoy knowing that:
1. My initial intentions were to leave Jefferson;
2. I purposefully looked in San Diego;
3. I didn’t apply anywhere else.
