It is with a heavy heart that I write my final “intern blog” for Like A Voss. Will this be a “Tony Stark at the end of Endgame” moment? Who is really to say.
Right, well obviously it’s not the same because I’m no Robert Downey Jr. saving the universe while also sacrificing myself for the greater good. However, this is a bittersweet moment because on one hand this marks the completion of both my second year in AMC and my first industry/field experience, but on the other, the internship is over.
It’s certainly been a whirlwind of a semester. The fact that I started in winter and it is literally almost summer is a mind boggling experience. I blinked and four months just whipped right by me. Sometimes I’ll start getting existential and start with the whole, “where am I, how did I get here?” shtick, but that may just be from the dissociation.
The big idea of this though is, “what did you learn?”. You know that moment when you were a kid and your parents asked you what you learned at school, and you said “nothing” even though that was far from the truth? I wholeheartedly can say that I have learned a LOT, which I guess is growth from what would be angsty, middle school Emrys’ response. Even saying that feels like I am underselling the value of the knowledge and experience that I’ve accrued over the past four months. I’ve learned a lot of practical skills, as in “hands-on skills”, such as running engagement sessions, blog writing and publishing/editing, social media audits, and copywriting to name a few. I’ve also learned what I consider to be the “mental” or “theoretical” side of social media marketing. I’ve learned a lot about the strategy behind hashtags (as mentioned before), forming call-to-actions, and the importance of community building through social media.
And here we are, at the end of this 4-month long journey. I’ve lived, I’ve laughed, I’ve learned, I’ve seen 10cm of snow in April. What will become of me now? Oh! Well, there is that whole bit about me becoming an Account Manager/Content Writer for LAV! *Cue the confetti*
Yes that is correct, I am here to stay and it feels incredible. I’ve spent a lot of my life fighting against impostor syndrome, and when it comes to selling myself as a “working professional”, I am super awkward. When I look back at the exercise given to me by Mandi to “create my dream job with LAV”, it was very empowering for someone like me, a student. The exercise made me dissect my knowledge both from my academia and from my internship, and gave me a space to not only prove to others, but prove to myself what value I hold professionally. I think as students we typically don’t see ourselves working “in the field” until post-graduation, so we undervalue our knowledge and experience UNTIL we have the big, framed diploma that hangs on the wall.
I absolutely love this team and everyone on it, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to continue my work and make an impact alongside these incredible people.
Stay safe out there, and stay jazzy!
