My Lens 001: Summertime
When challenged to create your own content you’re stuck with 3 options: entertain, inform, or document. Entertainment can be difficult unless you have a hobby where you already make people laugh. Informing requires expert knowledge in the specific field. But, documenting is something anyone can do. So that’s what I’m going to do.
All documenting requires is that you actually put in the work to put out some content. So if I dedicate at least an hour everyday to produce some content or some article, I’ll be on my way. I have something that no one else has. I’ve lived my life and no one else has lived every single second of it, only I’ve done that. So here’s my first story of the year.
I’m a college student and it’s about time for me to take on the world so, I naturally that means working somewhere when I’m not in school. I worked at the YMCA at a summer camp for 5 summers in a row from my sophomore year of high school until the summer after my sophomore year in college. Before working there I volunteered there and even went to camp there. With so many summers spent in the same place I went somewhere else. Part of the change was because you’re told in the business school that employers like to see internships. Part was camp did start to feel stale. The last part was someone important told me they thought I was meant for something more.
With all of this in mind, I did it. I got an internship last summer. It involved driving an hour to work every morning and from work every evening. The internship wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting a planned summer with an end goal in mind. This was not the case. I filed folders and basically sat around for the first two weeks. I wasn’t enjoying the work. The other people that worked there were as nice as could be but, the actual work itself wasn’t for me. When I look back I ask, “Why did I even leave my previous job?”
When it gets down to it two of the three reasons were based on what other people thought I should do. Contrary to what the business school tells you, you don’t “need” an internship to get a job somewhere. They only tell you that because the business school wants you to work at places like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Grant-Thornton, and Duke Energy. Big companies that they have a great relationship with. Sure, these places offer great salaries and benefits. But, when they came to speak at campus events they all sounded stale and the same to me. “I do something different everyday.” “I didn’t chose the job it just sorta chose me.” I’ve realized I don’t want a job where I wake up in 10 years and “it picked me”. I want to have somewhere that I actively chose to work and I believe in what they stand for.
The second reason was someone important thought I was meant for something better. Just because they don’t like my job doesn’t mean I shouldn’t enjoy it. There’s a reason it’s my job, not theirs! Never again will I allow someone else influence me to make a choice I’d regret. I made the choice in the end, it’s my fault that I interned. I take 100% responsibility. I let myself be influenced, I shouldn’t have done that.
That YMCA job was important to me. It fulfilled me. I got to do the Lord’s work, serving children and molding them into better humans. I got to make people smile. I don’t know about you but, seems to me like that job is a winner.
This is for everyone who is experiencing this same process. The moral here: Take 100% responsibility always, and make your own choices.
