{"id":3379,"date":"2012-07-30T22:35:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T05:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studentlife\/?p=3379"},"modified":"2012-07-30T22:35:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T05:35:36","slug":"500-409-days-of-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/2012\/07\/30\/500-409-days-of-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"(500-409) Days of Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The word \u201csummer\u201d is best associated, at least to us students, with summer vacation. Yes, summer does imply a certain time period (June to August, usually), but I would say that in the label \u201csummer vacation\u201d the word means something entirely different. Buried under four other definitions of the word \u201csummer\u201d lies this gem; \u201c5. The period of finest development, perfection, or beauty previous to any decline.\u201d With the exception of the \u201cprevious to any decline\u201d part, I would say that summer vacation could be defined by this; a period of growth, rather than \u201c[the third definition] A period of hot, usually sunny weather.\u201d And for anyone who cares, I\u2019m using dictionary.com. (Remember, folks, plagiarism is plagiarism with or without intent!)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to pull a Dark Knight Rises right now and allow an inexplicable, long gap in the allegedly linear story that is this blog. In other words, I was going to continue by writing about the last few weeks of school, but now it\u2019s so far from my mind (and probably your interest) I figured I\u2019ll just skip forward and include some vague references and random stories from this gap.<\/p>\n

I arrived in Minnesota in mid-May after a\u00a0long, tiring finals week and (as per unwelcomed tradition) an all-nighter,\u00a0packing my increasingly volatile life into boxes. It\u2019d been almost seven months\u00a0since I was home (my \u201cwinter\u201d vacation was spent in the desert of northern\u00a0India) so when I woke up the next morning in my old bed with a full kitchen\u00a0beckoning me, I was disoriented. Beyond that, though, I felt agitated.<\/p>\n

You see, last summer I had an incredible\u00a0internship with Minnesota Public Radio, doing work that I adored for an\u00a0organization that I had always loved and admired. But this year when March, then April,\u00a0then May came around, I had no such plans for my summer. The few organizations\u00a0that I\u2019d applied to had passed on me and I was without a summer plan.\u00a0Waking up on that first morning back, I had\u00a0my first whiff of internship-unemployment. And boy howdy, it was bleak.<\/p>\n

For some amount of time that I lost track of\u00a0I just sat around, read, watched the West Wing, saw friends from home, and\u00a0slept in until noon. At some point I pulled out my ol’ bike and started\u00a0biking into downtown St. Paul, too. A pleasant enough life (and a very traditional \u201csummer\u201d vacation), but not how I\u2019m used to\u2014or comfortable with\u2014spending my time.<\/p>\n

But then my savior descended from heaven, and his name was Orville.<\/p>\n

Preface; in high school I was super super involved\u00a0in this YMCA program called Minnesota Youth In Government, which ran the Model\u00a0UN, Model State Assembly, etc. I was a student leader in all the conferences, on the State Board, attended the national conference, etc. You get the jist. It’s a great program with people that I know very well and hold very dear.<\/p>\n

So one evening I get a call from Orville,\u00a0the State Director of said program, who mentions \u201cI\u2019ve got some money lying\u00a0around. Want an internship?\u201d
\nWhy, yes. Yes, Orville, I would like an\u00a0internship.
\n\u201cGreat. Come in on Monday and we\u2019ll get\u00a0started.\u201d
\nAnd just like that, my summer had structure.\u00a0I had a place to be and, thus, had to wake up at a reasonable time, and now I\u00a0get to work for an organization that I\u2019m extremely passionate about. Granted,\u00a0it doesn\u2019t have the same name recognition on a resume as MPR, but still. Gaining valuable skills, being in a new(ish) office, and -best of all-it isn\u2019t nothing.<\/p>\n

School\u2014at least a liberal arts school\u2014is\u00a0about knowledge and skill: it\u2019s about studying under people who (usually) know\u00a0much more than you, it\u2019s about joining organizations and expanding the framework of the window through\u00a0which you see the world, it\u2019s about finding which study habits work for you\u00a0through trial and error, it\u2019s about making friends, and, most of all, it\u2019s about\u00a0learning to drink coffee.<\/p>\n

But summer is almost the opposite. It\u2019s the\u00a0time when students are released into the wild, wild real world and where students gain experience rather than knowledge. Summer is about relaxation, sure, but it\u2019s\u00a0about expanding the parts of your mind that you don\u2019t have the time or ability\u00a0to during the school year.<\/p>\n

\"Enjoying<\/a>

Enjoying the freedom of summer, or something.<\/p><\/div>\n

Whether it\u2019s watching 32 discs of the West\u00a0Wing in two months, trying that special recipe you found online, trying that\u00a0hair style you\u2019ve always liked on other people (fun fact: Ian Fox does not very\u00a0good with the side of his head shaved), these things all expand one\u2019s self,\u00a0mentally, physically, emotionally, whatever.<\/p>\n

What matters in the job market and what matters in life is not that awesome interdisciplinary major that you chose because it gave you \u201canalytical skillz\u201d or the internship that you had that one time at that one place, but, rather, who you are as a person and as a potential employee. No internship shapes a person\u2019s skillset, no membership card defines a person\u2019s interest, and no guitar chord makes a person interesting.<\/p>\n

You become who you are by the experiences that you have; how you elect to spend your free time and how you push yourself in whatever way you do.<\/p>\n

To me, summer is a period of free,\u00a0unstructured growth, coupled with the \u201cvacation\u201d part. It\u2019s a beautiful time where you can develop and perfect whatever you want, broadening your abilities, your friendships, and, yes, even your ability to cope with the never ending struggle of having nothing to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School\u2014at least a liberal arts school\u2014is about knowledge and skill. But summer is almost the opposite. It\u2019s the time when students are let loose into the real world and where they get experience rather than knowledge. Summer is about relaxation, sure, but it\u2019s about expanding the parts of your mind that you don\u2019t have the time or ability to during the school year.<\/p>\n

Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,23],"tags":[93,97,145,146,168,169,180,231,233,266,348,358,377,383],"class_list":["post-3379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2010-11","category-ian-fox-14","tag-chris-thile","tag-college","tag-fox","tag-freedom","tag-ian","tag-ian-fox","tag-internship","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-yig","tag-passages","tag-summer","tag-the-west-wing","tag-who-reads-these-tags-anyway","tag-yig"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}