How To Be The Perfect Intern

Truth be told: it was kinda hard to go straight to an internship after graduating college. It wasn’t my plan,  it was for a place I barely knew and for something that was the farthest thing from my major.

But let me tell you something: God was just chuckling up in heaven with how hesitantly I was to grabbing onto His plan because MAN was his plan so incredibly generous and SO perfect for where I was and am right now.

His plan was perfect because not only did he bring me into an incredible community of believers and mentors, but he also completely shattered my judgments of big church.

His plan was generous because from this beautiful community, I was graciously pushed towards baptism, I met and worked with so many great elementary teachers, and I’ve met some of my closest friends to date.

His plan was perfect because even though it felt like none of my cries were heard, He was listening, swiftly handing me over to a community that He knew would strengthen me, support me, and give me a nice little shove into the real world.

So how can you be a perfect intern? Well let me tell ya- I have made my mistakes, big, small, medium, huge, so I know all the ins and outs of intern life (not really, but I can act like it!).  But really, it’s not about being the perfect intern, it is about taking the opportunity to grow and stretch yourself more than you could anywhere else. In internships, you can fall flat on your face without any threat of losing your job (well, depending on how far/fast you fall..)

| SO. How can you make the most of your internship? |

1.Take advantage of the abounding amounts of grace. Guys, I am a scatter brain. I may have a little hint of ADD as well as short term memory loss- and those two things make work a little difficult at times. I will leave something out, forget a few letters in the graphic or miss every single Tuesday meeting because well, I keep forgetting. And lucky for me, I have the best supervisors and co-workers who love me well and give me sarcasm right back when I forget how to spell “opportunities.” I am lucky enough to be in a place full of grace and second chances- so if you have that, take advantage. It’ll prepare you for those hard places and people you may come in contact with in your next step of life.

Plus the cafe is pretty much your office, so no complaints here.

2.Laugh at yourself. Okay. So I have to do this or my life would be one big bag of empty glasses and frown lines. Just this past week I almost dropped my sweater in the toilet, tripped going up the stairs on a Sunday morning, spelled a bajillion things wrong in my graphics- and that was just in 5 days. I have also tweeted and posted on all the church’s social media accounts more than once, been front and center on the big screen when it wasn’t my time to shine, and successfully sat through an all staff meeting that I wasn’t invited to in the first place. I’m all over the place all the time- so I have to let it go and just laugh at myself. So when you’re just learnin’, you have to laugh at yourself too. Learn, laugh, repeat, ya feel me?

And embrace those days of the photo times and awkward video shoots.

3.Go above & beyond. I am a perfectionist, to a very weird degree. I will work hard on all that I am given, try to make it as perfect as possible, but once I am given an ounce of down time, I take it a little too seriously. To tell it to you straight- I can be really lazy if you give me a chance to be. So I have realized that this internship is a time that God gave me to grow not a time to move like a sloth for the entire 6 months. Of course depression doesn’t make easy at times (and neither do mornings) but that is where the grace flows abundantly and I am pushed beyond what I ever imagined.

4.Soak it all in. I seriously love my job, I love my church, and man do I love Springfield. And even though California will be so dang wonderful, I am not ready to let it all go just yet. West Side has done so much for me in such a short amount of time, and 2 and  a half months will be gone in a blink of an eye. So I am going to soak in this time of grace, this time of learning until the day comes for me to leave. So take your internship, your ‘intro to adult life’ chance and just sit and send a buncha praises up to the Big Man upstairs because  internships are a bless-ing.

And sometimes you get to soak in your favorite place with your favorite people.

And that is how you are become a perfect intern. It’s easy: be the farthest from perfect and you’ll learn a heck of a lot.

See ya soon,

Stephanie Lynn