And so it begins...

Washington D.C.

It is a loaded name that calls to mind politics, history and scandal. Growing up in Massachusetts, I never had the opportunity to visit our nation’s capital and it took me going to college in Texas to finally get the motivation. To say that I am excited doesn’t do my emotions justice. D.C. has so much to offer, or I have been told that D.C. has so much to offer by friends and a variety of travel books I have been studying. I look forward to experiencing as much of the history, culture and food (I have heard the food is AMAZING and have been saving my pennies all summer to be able to afford my impending expensive lifestyle) as possible.

This summer I worked for Philips, an international lighting, healthcare and electronics company that is based in the Netherlands. I worked in the Healthcare sector, as an Online Marketing/Web Content Support Intern (try saying that 5 times fast…). My main job was to help localize their healthcare website in over 20 different countries. This involved updating pages, communicating with the different country site owners and working with technical support on any issues within the site. My boss was in the Netherlands. My boss’s boss was in the Netherlands. My boss’s boss’s boss…I think you get the picture. Basically, I am ready to work with and learn from people who were the same country as me – maybe even the same city or state.

Additionally, I wanted my internship in D.C. to be a stepping-stone, or maybe a launch pad into a career post-graduation (which happens to be in a mere 9 months, not that anyone is counting or freaking out) and my main goal was to work on my writing. I am Strategic Communication major, which is a futuristic term for Public Relations and Advertising, and hope to work specifically in Corporate Social Responsibility (an emerging field in PR that aligns social issues/non-profit organizations (i.e. The American Heart Association) with private sector corporations (i.e. Diet Coke – you might have seen their Red Dress campaign…AMAZING). So far, my formula for my perfect internship experience in D.C. looks like this:

A - Work directly with/for people in U.S.
B - Work for a smaller company (25 or less employees)
C - Have the opportunity to build my writing portfolio
D - Do something related to social/political issues
E - Have the opportunity to network and experience D.C.’s professional world
F - Work for a respected-motivated-competitive firm that lets me do more then get coffee

Therefore, A +B+C+D+E+F X a short commute = TRICOM ASSOCIATES. I finalized everything on August 3rd and officially accepted. After two months of always waiting for something better to come along, I got the best. I will now shamelessly plug my future/temporary employer’s website – www.tricomassociates.com.

Despite my excitement, I am also hesitant. It will be…different living in a city full-time. It is an unknown place filled with unknown people and unknown threats. It will also be challenging – taking two classes, working almost 40 hours a week and finding time to explore what D.C. has to offer. It is a fear of the unknown, fear of something different and ultimately, the fear of failure. But, I found a saying once that always made me stop worrying and start doing (I actually wrote it on my high school graduation cap in permanent marker and it bled all over the place but it was too late…sorry, not important). So I tell myself – “Self fear not, because you don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.” And I reply to myself – “Well Self, let’s start in D.C.”