We Don't Want To Hear About Your Summer Internship

By Christina Sterbenz

Raise your hand if you remember that kid in middle school who only wanted to know your grade on a recent test so he could inform you that he did better. Well, college created another version of your condescending adversary—one who inquires about your summer internship and then scoffs when you admit you didn’t have one.

Overbearing parents and career-obsessed professors have ingrained the invaluableness of work experience and networking into our heads. They mean well, but they also induce stress, anxiety and an unnecessary dread of what’s supposed to be a relaxing vacation.

Admittedly, I started summer with a paying job in New York City, but I quickly realized that my employer may have embellished the glamour of canvassing. “Promoting different advocacy and humanitarian groups” actually meant distributing pamphlets in Union Square six hours a day to people who probably would have mistaken me for a mugger. Disappointed in my job and horrified by my bleak living arrangement, I went home after only a week in NYC.

I felt guilty about abandoning my internship, but in retrospect, I feel zero regret for my three months of sunshine-filled freedom. I may not have gained a letter of recommendation or any new LinkedIn connections, but I had other experiences necessary to my personal growth and happiness.

Instead of disseminating information on topics that didn’t particularly move me, I helped survey the local bat population. In place of attempting interaction with a thousand gruff New Yorkers on a daily basis while making no real connections, I spoke at an SU send-off for incoming freshman. I spent four days babysitting my three cousins—all younger than 10. Try telling me I didn’t learn anything.

I work hard enough nine months out of the year going to class, joining student organizations, and working as a teacher’s assistant. Lazy summer mornings and games of pool with my big brother have become essential to my existence. I make no apologies. These moments make me feel a little less like a brainwashed workaholic staying busy for all the wrong reasons and more like a young adult simply enjoying life.

The Social Darwinian view of college must stop. As I found, the student with the longest and most relevant résumé may not necessarily survive. Personality, cultural awareness, and even minimum wage bitchwork play a larger role in the real world than most would care to admit. Just because my résumé didn’t change over the summer doesn’t mean I didn’t.