Discovering untapped passions along the way.
BLOG: Post-Grad Musings
By Sereen Thahir
WASHINGTON, DC: I remember the summer after my senior year in high school; I was so excited not just for the start of college, but also for the prospect of a summer vacation without a single academic summer assignment. For the past twelve years, I had to finish problem sets for math class, reading and writing assignments for English, and other tasks. Within a year, however, I soon realized that those summer assignments were meager in comparison to what would await me during college: the search for the perfect internship.
The summer after my first year in college was a learning experience. I had learned too late that the process for finding a professional internship is supposed to start months in advance; I did not start looking until after my classes had ended. I ended up with a job at a summer camp and as a tutor, which satisfied my desire for both fun and cash at the same time. However, I kept hearing about upperclassmen friends within my major who were interning at places I did not think possible, traveling, and studying abroad. I knew that I wanted something more intellectually fulfilling, but I just did not know what.
As I began my second year, I knew that internship deadlines were sooner than I originally thought, but I had no idea where to look. As a Foreign Affairs major surrounded by a group of pre-med friends, I was jealous of their preordained track. Their summers were filled with organic chemistry classes, shadowing of doctors, and other activities designed to boost their chances into getting into a top medical school.
Since my field of study was more open ended, there were no such ‘tracks’ I could follow. I was too shy to approach my professors, a regret I still have. I resorted to what I did know: the Internet. I scoured career opportunities and organizations while balancing classes and extracurricular activities. Too many required skills I just did not have as a second year student in college or were unpaid, which I was trying to avoid. In the end, I applied for a variety of positions and waited for callbacks.
As the weeks passed, I grew resigned to the fact that I would probably have to look at the same type of work as the previous summer. One day, I received a phone call for an interview at an organization that I had applied to rather flippantly minutes before the deadline. It was for an Asian-American advocacy organization that placed a class of students in various government and non-profit agencies throughout Washington, D.C. Though it had nothing to do with my field of study, it still stuck me as interesting and worth a shot for the short window I had to apply. Needless to say, I was very surprised at the chance for the interview and spent all my time trying to prepare. I thought I had failed at the phone interview, and once again was about to accept the summer camp position when I received the email I thought would never come: I had been accepted.
I was placed at the Department of Labor in a workers’ rights agency and was convinced that I would spend the entire day, for the rest of the summer, performing menial tasks at a government job. I could not possibly be more wrong. Not only did the agency make sure that I had interesting, significant, and varied work to do throughout the summer, but I became close to 24 other passionate young Asian-American advocates from across the country and broadened my perspective on so many ideas and beliefs. The amount of self-confidence, extended networks, and new friendships I made far outweighed the small stipend I received at the end that I was initially searching for.
Two summers later, I am still struggling with the search for the perfect internship that balances the money I need to pay for graduate school with meaningful experience. But I have also learned to be grateful for my lack of a preordained ‘track’. I would have never applied for that internship if I stuck exactly to my field of study. I discovered untapped passions of mine that could also lead to potential opportunities. Could I do one thing by day and another by night, like one of the amazing speakers I met that summer? Unlike that spring two years ago, I do not feel that I will have to settle for whatever is easiest. I am excited for wherever my passions lead me, paid or unpaid.
Sereen Thahir is a graduate student at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She is passionate about politics, sports, and Bollywood films and blogged for the University of Virginia’s Asian Student Union for two years.