Today was the first day of my and everyone else’s internship! We have waited for this day for months, possibly even more than first arriving here in Ireland. Everyone had a story to tell, and all of them were interesting.

Some of us found out that we don’t work Fridays, some of us found out we have to work an extra half hour every day. Regardless, all of us have a real responsibilities and time commitments that we have to and want to honor. Yet it is quite tough to transition from the early days of the summer and the first week of exploration we have had here in Dublin. Actually, it is tough to work a 9-5 at all!

The prompt this week is aptly a consideration on how we will manage our time. For better or for worse, internships can be chaotic and not fully realized when they are first started. They are a temporary position filled by an unexperienced student, so there can’t be an actual need to be satisfied, but at the same time there needs to be real responsibilities to be undertaken, otherwise it is a meaningless experience. All of this means that there is a large onus on us students to be proactive and thoughtful with our actions and time. Time management is an important part of this.

For example, I was told today to watch many hours of videos as my onboarding and as busywork until the company is fully ready for me. As necessary as this may have been, it was tedious and draining. At some point I wanted to stop watching these videos, to just quit and call the day early. However, I knew that if I truly did want to get to more interesting content, that I needed to eat my vegetables first. And that is what I did. Instead of filling a “meaningless” 20 minute gap with email scrolling or something similarly mindless, I watched another video. And tomorrow, when we have our logins and access to real software, I will be able to start working, instead of having to watch that video.

I hope to continue this behavior. I know that time and time again I will be tested. I work from home two days of the week, and it may be quite easy to slack on work when I’m not in the office and distractions are all around me. What if my company is chill and they are not monitoring me as often as they should? Will I allow myself to let go of my responsibilities then?

If there is anything that being in college, and specifically Pitt Business, has shown me, it is that there is always more to accomplish, and there is always less. I definitely could be an intern that does the bare minimum, and is holding onto the fact that this company derives at least some benefit from me and won’t get rid of me. Or I could be the intern that finishes everything diligently and then asks what task is next. If I want to grow, if I want to make the most of my time and money and skills, I will pick the latter. It isn’t always the most popular decision, and it definitely requires a lot of time management.

Part of this internship is acquiring hard skills, like bettering my ability with Tableau. There are also soft skills that are made much easier in a work setting, like networking with older and more experienced people. However, it seems that it will also be another of life’s reinforcements that if the situation is worth experiencing, it will not come easily. Time management will be necessary, and that is not just while on the clock. That is making sure I do not go out every night so that I get enough sleep; that is making sure I wake up early enough to arrive to work on time; that is budgeting enough time to get groceries and be able to live without compromising my work ability. Failure is inevitable; I will sometimes take the easy way out or just not think about the hard way, but overall I will plan and strive that I am able to take care of myself and my responsibilities, like I have tried my whole life.

PS – the photo is of a particular tree. I do not know anything about the tree besides that it looked like a pine tree grown all wrong. I included it because while there is a lot of fascinating moments and places to go to, sometimes the subtleties is what makes a place unique in a special and memorable way.