How do I possibly introduce myself? There is a very large chance that the only person to visit this blog throughout these next few months is my father, but you never know with the internet.
Me? I’m Jana. I’m 21 at the moment, but feel content describing my age as being, “Oh, I’ll be 22 this year.” The greatest compliment that I receive on a regular basis is that I have a good head on my shoulders. I’d like to believe that it’s a true one.
I’ll be going into my senior year this fall at a small college in North Carolina. I’m a communications major, with an emphasis in public relations. I’m also minoring in psychology. College is a fun time, but I’m ready to start the next chapter of my life.
I have been in three relationships in the past five years. In high school, I dated a guy for two years. As soon as I got to college, I broke up with him and dated a new guy, B, for another two years. A few weeks after I broke up with him, I started dating another guy for six months.
Hello, my name is Jana, and I’ve been sober from the relational commitment lifestyle for three months. Please, hold your applause.
Interestingly enough, the breakup with the last guy, J, triggered the adventure that I am currently on. Looking back, he and I weren’t incredibly compatible in the first place. I’m only a year older than him, but the maturity levels revealed something else entirely. Also, J is from a very small town in North Carolina close to where I attend school, and I could never be sure that my future didn’t entail living there for the rest of my life. This is relevant because you need to know that I’m never content with status quo, with living in the same place for longer than necessary, with settling for second best, or with a lack of culture or adventure in my life. So J and I broke up. It took me only a week to get over it, because I was well aware of the fact that I was in for a much more exciting future.
After the breakup (March), I began researching my options for the coming months. To be honest, I was continuously making plans that proceeded to fall through days later. I settled for taking classes in the one-stoplight town that is home to my university, but soon realized that I wouldn’t be able to for a number of reasons. I was only a few weeks away from moving into an apartment with a girl I know when she had to back out. The disappointments kept coming, and summer was soon approaching.
With a month to go until classes let out, I made a decision. I would not allow myself to go back to the smallish, southern town that I had lived in all my life. I was tired of the same people, the same roads, the same entertainment, the same everything…I had seen it all, ever since I was very young. I was ready for a change. My life was not going the way I wanted it to go, and I decided to take it upon myself to fix that. When my adviser told me that I needed an internship for the summer, I set out to make it happen-and so the adventure began.
I took out a map of our great United States of America, and marked where I knew people that I wouldn’t mind spending the summer with or near. The places ranged from Florida to Georgia, Michigan to Maine. I zeroed in on one spot, though-the Northeast. I have an aunt, uncle, and 3 cousins in Maine, and my grandmother lives in Boston. I have visited my family in Maine almost every year since I was about 12 years old, so I am fairly familiar with the area. I began researching internships in the area, and I found a handful. None were paid, but I anticipated that, especially considering I was applying for these jobs only a month before I was available to start working. I created a resume, and began sending it out, but to no avail.
As all of this was going on, I remembered my favorite cousin (C) who lives outside of Burlington, Vermont with her husband (CH…cousin’s husband). I actually went to their wedding with B in Vermont last July, and fell completely in love with the area. I remember looking over at B and saying, “one day, I’m going to live here.” If only we knew at the time that we weren’t going to live there, I was. Could have saved ourselves a lot of time, but I digress.
I immediately put a listing on Craigslist:
Hello,
I am a rising college senior from North Carolina studying communications with an emphasis in Public Relations. I am at a place in my life where I want to explore and see new places, and as I have family in Vermont, I feel it is just the place to spend a summer. I am looking for an internship in the world of communications, marketing, or public relations. I am very motivated, focused, and flexible, and feel I can offer a great deal to your company. If I obtain an internship, I will be able to move to Vermont from North Carolina mid-May, and stay until mid-August. Of course, a paid internship would be ideal, otherwise I’ll have to get a second job, but I am understanding that acquiring a great, paid internship is very rare. Please email me back through this listing if interested.
Thank you,
Jana
I didn’t think much would come of it. After all, even if someone was interested, I probably wouldn’t be able to interview before I was available to move. It was a shot in the dark, but I’m glad I fired. A few days later, as I was starting to give up hope, I received an email.
Hi Jana:
I would love to speak with you about a possible internship with my company (she proceeded to list the magazines she owns).
K
I was incredibly excited, but I kept a cool head and wrote her back. We ended up hitting it off pretty well, and I found out that she runs two wedding magazines, one for Vermont and one for New York. They are incredible, and very reminiscent of the style of the magazine Real Simple.
In between finishing school and everything else I had going on, I found a weekend to fly up to Burlington to meet K. I stayed with C and CH, and had an incredible weekend.
- K offered me 40 hours a week.
- C and CH showed me around Burlington.
- Fell in love with the city and surrounding areas.
- Approached a guy downtown and hit it off (we’ll call him MM-motorcycle man, as he has a nice bike, and taking a ride was kind of a first date for us.)
- Spent the remainder of the weekend seeing Vermont through the eyes of C and CH, riding on the back of MM’s bike, and going to yard sales with K.
- Was offered a place to stay with K for the summer, in the gorgeous hundred-something-year-old house she’s restoring. Right next to a lake. With a gym. And a pool I can use.
- Noticed I’m only about an hour away from Montreal.
- Found out that through this internship, I will have the opportunity to visit and work in the Hamptons and/or Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.
To sum up? A perfect opportunity. I came back to North Carolina missing Vermont already, and seemingly counted down every second until I got back.
A few days ago, my father and I packed up the car, and drove the 21 hours from South Carolina all the way here to Vermont. I moved in to K’s house, spent time with C and CH, got to see K and her mom a few times, and hung out with MM for a while.
I’m here to stay for the summer, and I’m loving every minute of it. My internship starts tomorrow at 8:30am, most likely prompting a new blog.
This summer is going to be an adventure. I am becoming the type of person who searches for excitement and new experiences, and I plan to blog about it all. I do hope you’ll stick by and watch it all unfold.
-J
