I understand where the word "intern" comes from now...

Location: Couch
Listening to: Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You from The Last Five Years


So, as I mentioned in my last post, I've been interning this summer. I'm working for a set of aviation-oriented business magazines. One deals with maintenance, one with ground support, and one with airports.

I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not a huge fan of it. So far my main task has been going through old issues of the magazines and tagging articles online so that they show up in search engines. Which involves a lot of aviation terminology.

Here's a secret: I don't know anything about aviation. I'm not interested in aviation. I have been on a plane one time in my entire life.

I've done a few other things, like editing press releases and proofing copy for stories. I've sat in on some planning meetings and I've been promised that I will get the change to write something at some point. I kind of doubt that will happen, because that's just the way things are going at the moment. Normally I'm there for five hours a day, four days a week. Usually they give me about one hour's worth of work, so I spend roughly four hours doing nothing.

And not getting paid for it.

You know how some people equate college internships to slave labor? I think they're wrong. I think college internships (or, some, at least) are more like indentured servitude. I had to pay upwards of $900 to be able to get credit towards graduating for this internship that is not paying me and making me do the work no one else wants to do. I will be free eventually, I just have to work off my debt first. Which kind of feels like it will never happen.

I know this semi-job is giving me some sort of experience that might help me in the future and it will look great on my resume. But I wish I could be done. I kind of just want to spend summer being  a lazy bum. It would be optimal if someone would pay me to be a lazy bum.

Siiigghhhh. I can dream....

(Also, in reference to the title of this post, I now believe that "intern" comes from the word "internment" which I think means something like "You are forced to be somewhere and work for free". But I'm not a dictionary. So I could be wrong. :D)