Life As The Intern: 5 Ways Your Summer Internship Will Make You A Grandma

21 going on 55

Picture: Still from 13 Going on 30

Ah the internship … the first sign that your college career is coming to a bittersweet end. You still have no idea what you want to do after college but your university is forcing encouraging you to at least try to get your life together. Interning is a super-fun and rewarding experience, but there are some things that no one ever tells you to prepare for. For example, you are about to go from feeling like you are in your prime to wondering if J. Crew offers senior discounts for those of us who just hit legal but feel like we suddenly need to dip into our 401k accounts to buy this season's latest cashmere sweater.

1. You have to be responsible ALL the time
It's summer, you are staying in your college town with no supervision yet you still have to manage to excuse yourself from girls night early because nothing makes a blaring 6 a.m. alarm worse than when you just crawled into bed three hours prior to it.

2. You bring back the "finger tip length" rule from your middle school days
This was such an eye opener for me the second week going into my internship. I had (read: foolishly) already decided that I didn't need any new clothes for work because I own an abundance of dresses and skirts. I had managed in high school to get by with short skirts and in college that no one cared, I had yet to realize that only about 45 percent of my wardrobe would be considered "length appropriate." I stood in my closet for what seemed like forever trying on things to see if they passed the tips of my fingers with my arms at my sides, then ripping them off when they did not meet that qualification. So be prepared to (temporarily) say goodbye to your mini dresses and say hello to those maxi skirts your great aunt Carole got you for Christmas.

3. "I can't it's a work night/I have to be up early/I literally can't stand another second"
You see these phrases? Write them down, practice them, memorize them, preset them in your phone keyboard. These will be your excuses for why you are so lame and refuse to go out Monday through Friday for the duration of your internship. Your friends will hound you, judge you, and roll their eyes, but quite frankly, you will care as much about this whining as Shia Labeouf cares about his wardrobe choices (not at all). Trust me, you'll feel bad at first but after an eight hour shift, you'll just want to rest peacefully (with your group chat muted) too tired to care.

4. Alone time is sacred
This one probably depends a bit more on what your internship actually entails and a bit of what kind of personality you have. For me, after spending roughly 40 hours a week smiling and making small talk, my off days were reserved for doing everything BY MYSELF. The fear of being mistaken for a lonely girl because I'm eating alone in public was no longer a thing. Sitting solo in my apartment binge watching Pretty Little Lairs sounded oh so blissful. And matinee movie a la me, myself and I was such a treat. Not that you won't miss your friends dearly, trust me you will! But you will truly treasure alone time much more than you did before. 

5. Weekends are reserved for cleaning
Like I previously stated, after work you will want to do absolutely nothing! By the end of the week you will take a look around your apartment and think, "My god, how did this happen?" The laundry pile will resemble Mt. Everest, the lid to the trash can barely closes, every fork you own is in the dishwasher, and do you even have a carpet under all those rejected outfits on the floor? I love having a super tidy apartment so I actually looked forward way too much to the days I could spend bringing the place back up to standard. 

Just remember, it will be a lot of hard work, but it will also be more than worth it. Good luck fellow interns!

Vivre dans le luxe,
Jordin