Audrey A McGee

As you just saw in my last post, there was a lot in my internship that I could improve upon.

I needed a deadline to do anything, and priorities were hard if it was a long-ongoing project.

Again…ADHD. It is going to my Herculean, and hopefully not Sisyphean, task to cope and conquer the symptoms that get in my way of doing work successfully.

Interns are always told to show up with their best, and I agree.

But sometimes you have a cruddy day.

Sometimes you don’t get any sleep.

Sometimes you’re homesick.

Sometimes you just got hurt by a friend.

These things can be put aside to some degree, and the distraction of work is a beautiful antidote to engaging in too much hurt.

But I don’t think you can show up with “your best” on all those days. And if your internship is a year long, like mine, you’re going to have more of those days than if it’s just a summer program. And you shouldn’t be trying to put on your biggest smile if it’s killing you inside.

You aren’t going to feel like going to your internship some days. You might wake up two hours late and can’t get there on time —

What do you do? Do you call in sick and apologize? Do you scramble to get there and then pretend like it was just awful traffic?

You show up. With as much of your best as you can.

Even if that’s two hours less than your normal “best”.

Taking accountability while not living in failure is one of the best markers of a good intern, and bringing yourself honestly to your job every day will let you keep up the good work even on the hard days.

Sometimes it will feel like you’re apologizing to your supervisors a lot. That’s okay. But if it happens over and over, see if there’s a way that you can ask for help instead of just asking for forgiveness.

And keep showing up.

That will be honored and respected. It’s way better than nothing.