Wow, it feels good to be back! As you probably noticed, I haven't written for the blog in quite a while. In fact, it's been about two months since my last post. To be honest, I didn't feel the most inspired and creative this summer. I was working full time and usually wanted to do absolutely nothing when I got home at the end of the day. I know I'm going to have to get over that soon, as I'll be (hopefully) working full time after graduation in a few months, but for now I'm glad to headed back to school soon!
I wrapped up my summer internship at the Greater Des Moines Partnership on Tuesday, August 8 and had a lot of mixed feelings about being done. The experience wasn't necessarily what I thought or hoped it would be, but I still learned a lot and met amazing people and worked on incredible projects while I was there. I'm very grateful for the opportunity I had to work there this summer.
I think one of the main reasons I was a little bummed during the first few weeks of my internship is that I missed nannying! I missed my kiddos and hanging out with them every day and doing fun kid things and just having a fun summer with them. Ok, that bummed me out the whole summer and still does. I just really loved nannying and would honestly do it my whole life! But as Mary Poppins knows so well, kids grow up and don't need their nannies forever. I absolutely loved the three summers I spent with the Niggs and would not trade them for anything at all. I'm incredibly excited that I get to see my good ol' nanny kids before I head to school, so we'll get to catch up on everything just like old times.
While I did get pretty down sometimes wishing I was back nannying, I did get into a rhythm at my internship and came to really enjoy the people I worked with and some of the projects I worked on in my time there. A lot of my job consisted of routing paperwork and printing things and running things from department to department, but I also did get some opportunities to write and edit, which were always my favorite things to do {as always!}. I got to work on newsletter content and award nominations and news releases and blog posts. You can check out a couple of the blog posts I wrote here and here. And I found out in my last few days at The Partnership that an award nomination I wrote actually won! While I didn't work on the project we were nominating, I did feel pretty special knowing I wrote the nomination letter and summary for the project, which was awesome.
I think my favorite part of the whole experience was the people that I worked with. I worked with badass boss women like our Chief Communications Officer and Director of Marketing. I worked with some inspiring artists like our Graphic Designer and Project Manager. Plus this inspiring lady just made my day almost every day. And shoutout to my fellow interns! Amanda and Julia, you guys made me laugh every day, and I'm so glad we ventured through this summer together. What amazing people! I'm so lucky to have met everyone that I did, those I listed above and those that I didn't.
And now it's time to move on! In a few days I'll be heading back to Iowa City for my final semester at the University of Iowa. Holy cow! These last three years absolutely flew by. From major bouts of homesickness and uncomfy feelings at the beginning of freshman year to the nostalgia and comfort I felt last semester, my time at Iowa has been quite the ride. Honestly, I hated school at first. I didn't like being away from home in a completely new place without almost anyone I knew. But I've really come to love my school and consider Iowa City a second home. I'm so excited to get back and get going and just enjoy it all. I'm so sad it's almost over, but I know it's just the beginning of all of the great things to come in the future!
I also went on an amazing trip to New York City a few weeks ago and attended Her Conference. I need to write a blog post about that because that trip was so incredible. It inspired me and got me excited about many things to come! Stay tuned for more on that...
And now that I'm heading back to school, I'm hoping to get back to blogging on a more regular basis! Keep me accountable if you start to notice I'm slacking on that :)
How did you spend your summer? What are you looking forward to in the coming months? What did you do after you graduated?
Lots of love,
Sarah
Elizabeth Gilbert, "Eat, Pray, Love"
