Quarter reflection

I have been putting this off for days thinking about what my grade should be because I have been thinking a lot about it. I could go on for hours about how great of a job all of the girls have been doing and how awesome they all are, but I find such difficulty in telling about my achievements. I am so proud of all that I have accomplished, but I would not be anywhere without everyone's support. I feel as though I should be modest and humble throughout my days because I am not running a show all by myself. I have been receiving the help from all three of my fellow interns, and we have built a sense of unity.

In the beginning, the projects were soley assigned to one person. As the quarter has been progressing, I have realized that no one keeps their one and only project. Each of us supports and helps the other to finish their project, and gives them confidence to present it to others. Although in our minutes, we say that a project is assigned to one person, really that means that we have all taken on the responsibly. I have been traveling to buildings all quarter, whether it be from Cape Elizabeth to Eco-Maine to South Portland, I have helped by providing transportation, along with my charisma. Even trips where I knew that my fellow interns were confident enough, such as meeting with Mr. Kehoe, I attended. I attended meetings that were not my projects, simply because I knew that if I were given a project, I know that the girls would give me support as well.

Each of us has our own strengths. Molly is an amazing note keeper and organizer. Colleen can do math and keep track of finances like no other. Jenny is fantastic with tech support and a great artist. I believe that I am good at people skills, being the PR, gathering the students at Deering, and uniting the staff throughout our journey.

I have donated my time: each third block, sometimes weekends, and even both lunches, or my first block, in order to finalize all our projects, keep tabs on people, and stay connected with my interns through the Facebook events I create. I have transported our interns, along with including my sister (representing Casco Bay) to our projects, like Tar Sands canvassing, our Cape Elizabeth trip, numerous trips to the café to work on our course proposals in the spring (which came out beautifully), and our meetings at Eco-Maine and Casco Bay. I have run around the school rallying kids to honor their commitments to the cafeteria monitoring. I have brought recycling bins to classrooms that needed them, and educated the ones that asked for help. I have created lists for monitoring in the cafeteria, along with a job description and a contract for the employees (the students) to sign. I have typed up papers, met with students who needed help, and distributed notes from Ms. McWilliams to teachers. Basically, I was the school gopher.

I went to the store to pick up candy. I ordered 60 green eggs online. Any idea that I have come up with, Ms. McWilliams has let me roll with. She has let me show creativity and pushed me out of my comfort zone. Not in any class have I been assigned to create a list of D.Cs, rally twelve volunteers, and run my own meeting, all in a matter of days. I also have helped Colleen present her projects, taken over the take a milk cartons project, helped Jenny by getting the students for the project, and covered for Molly at the PATHS meeting.

I have learned so much through this internship so far. I have learned that I cannot be the leader all the time, and I need help from others. I have learned to take pride in my work, and to acknowledge all that others have done for me as well. I have learned that face to face connections, when possible, are always better than sending an email. I have learned not to be afraid of an office lady, or a director on the phone. I have learned how to write professional and proper emails, letters, and forms. I have learned that there are worse things in life than digging through trash, or missing one lunch each day of the week for a month. I have learned how to be a secretary, an advocate, and a good citizen.

This isn't a solo internship. We do not each work on our projects alone. We donate our time in order to better our school, and our globe, for generations to come. We work as a group, and help one another. We have accomplished so much in a matter of two months, and there are no other people that I would rather do this internship with.

I feel like I have learned to be my own advocate. I feel like I have matured more as a person. I did, however, fall behind on my blogs, but I caught up. I did not, however, comment on most of the other blogs though. This would be the one thing I would improve on. I would account this to my busy schedule between sailing, school, and work. Throughout the quarter, I had not been home most weekends, and for the past couple of weeks I have had horrible sinuses and have been sleeping a ton. I also had a lot of write ups to finish and print in one night for the internship, along with my other homework, that would account for not commenting. I did, however, skim through all of the other blog posts, even if I didn't have a chance to comment on them. This would be the part that I will try my hardest to improve on.