Intern Chick

I really strive to be the type of intern that has my sh*t together.  I work hard to be the one with all the answers for my boss, to know where everything is when he/she can't find it, and to always be ready for whatever the powers that be may throw my way.  And most of the time, I like to think I succeed.  But when you're focusing solely on one part of your life, other things start to fall apart.

I can remember the summer before my very first internship.  I had a ton of friends and a new boyfriend and was always hanging out and talking on the phone with them.  I didn't have much else going on in my life and so at that point, my friends were my life.  Then I started interning.  I commuted three days a week into Manhattan and the other two days I worked a part-time 9-5 in my home town.  On the days I went to New York, I would wake up around 9, get on the train, work until 8 or 9, and not get home until 9, 10 or 11:00 at night, if I was lucky.   I stopped having time for a social life and to this day, my friends will mention a wild night out or a traumatic experience and I ask myself, "Why didn't I know about this? Where was I?"  The answer is always the same..."Oh...that's right, I was working."

I'm okay with that, really, I am.  It's just the nature of the music industry game, and I'm no second string bench warmer.  The next year when I did my internship, I moved to Brooklyn and then I really never saw my friends, who wanted to visit me in the 'hood anyway?  I made new, New York, friends but still I was always working.  I again had two jobs so I would come home from my 4-day a week internship, and work from home through all hours of the night.  Even when I did have some time off, I really wasn't in the mood for anything but sleeping, reading, or TV watching.

And the same thing happened this last time I interned, not that I was really surprised or anything.

Its something you have to accept is going to happen at some point or another.  Maybe you'll balance it after a while, maybe you'll slack off at work so you can hang out with your friends, or maybe you'll be a loner like me and start an intense love affair with your cubicle.  Its just important you face the reality.  And that reality is, there will be a time you have to make a decision between the two.  

Is there a right and a wrong decision?  I don't think so...either way you're going to lose something.  But whichever you choose--charge that to the game.