Recipe for an amazing internship

I love meeting new people listening to what they have to say. Each person has so many stories to tell, they've done so many things that inspire you, and have an ability to create a positive atmosphere which is something you simply have to experience, it can't be explained. 

I’ve interacted with so many people throughout my internship and formed such different – a super-nice different – bonds with all of them that I can’t understand how or why others don’t go through the same. You meet people who've got an A in exchange for sketching the professor overnight, people who've stood on the HOD's table and taken a photograph out there (text me if you want me to take this off), and people who have a farm in their hometown where they eat fresh vegetables everyday. You find people like me who love communicating with others, and then you find others who choose to stay quiet for the most part. There are people amazing at chess, the table tennis is always occupied. You'll hear of people who cried when they left college because they'd miss it, and then there were also those who cried happy ones. This is also when you start loving your college because you begin to understand its worth. You start calling people aap irrespective of their age and find out random things like how Punjabis can also be Punjabis just because they come from Punjab and you need to take a boat to travel from IIT Ghuwahati to the city. 

It was my last day yesterday and I met three more interns who found the place where I was working depressing. On the other hand, I left from that office with this bittersweet feeling and wishing my future workplace has the same or at least similar kind of environment. 

And then I came to the conclusion that there is only so much a workplace can do. While the rules were very chilled out, I had the coolest boss on the floor - the team said so and I believe them as well. She was so friendly yet firm about what work we had to do, and had the perfect balance. I wish there were more bosses like her.

Then there is your team 💓💓💓

Those people were too good. It probably also has to do with the fact that I'm an intern and they'd feel responsible for how our two months would go, so they decided to be even more amazing but the thing is, they did not need to do that. They could have not cared but each one of them did, in their own way and that was incredible. And they got us sweets and made us tag along whenever it was someone's birthday as well. We'd always be secretly waiting for them to call us, 'we' being the other intern and me.

Apart from how nice they were, they were all so talented as well. While they'd make the other intern and me feel on top of the world with however little we've done in life, they knew so so so much themselves, it was crazy. We'd try doing the same thing ourselves but it was as though their hands had magic. HOW DO YOU DO THAT? Someone please explain.

They helped us solve errors, however long it took them or however stupid it was. And more importantly helped us understand what exactly we had to do.

And then the other intern. Her sincerity and capacity to work stuns me, and inspires me, but stuns me even more. She wakes up at five in the morning on a weekend if she has work and studies all day. I don't even wake up at five successfully to go to college. I don't know what I would have done without her. She was always there sitting right next to me, my partner in crime, and the person to share a laugh with whenever bored, or even otherwise.

So I think the recipe for a good internship is, apart from the kind of work you will be doing (which is obviously priority), a great boss, team that loves you and an intern by your side :P 

Sometimes people think tough love is how to go about getting work done, but I think a pleasant atmosphere works wonders. Thanks to everyone who made this a great experience!

On the flip side though...

Because bringing the sky high expectations to the ground is going to be so hard. :')

Much love,

Kanksha