I participated in the weekly #internpro chat this past Monday discussing the topic of, "Balance Your Internship and Your Summer Vacation!” I am so fortunate to tune in this week on this topic, because like many of the other chat participants juggling school/work/internships, I'm burnt out!
Attempting to balance out working 8-5, scheduling events for christian youth group, The TURNAROUND, putting together a writing staff for HerCampus SFA Branch, and the internship, I'm just as busy or busier than I was during school!
The very first question of this chat was how do you prevent from getting burned out. The responses were good, but two that stuck out to me most were to designate a day to calm down and recollect. Since Sunday is "the day of rest" anyway, I requested that our Sunday evenings meetings with CasMacPR be moved to Monday and the rest of the "duties" I tend to can be picked up Monday as well. This gives me a day to do Nothing. Of course, I'm never known to do anything, but the idea is that I don't have a specific deadline to get something done that day. The other thing that stood out was to dedicate an hour of your day to concentrate on you. After I get off at 5, I go home to send out more emails and research more topics from the time I get in til the time I pass out. Reserving an hour out of my day will help me to recollect my thoughts as well as help get rid of this "Freshman (Junior) 15" I picked up on my first year of school away from home!! ;)
The chat continued with tips of how to manage time properly and how to reach out to others. Most importantly, a quote from Tom Bolt, HR professional, @TomBolt stuck out to me most:
"Make time for fun during summer, but you should be making life priorities. What is important right now?"What is important right now? Many of my classmates come back home from the summer and want to "make memories" consistently saying it's our last year of school we should do something. I don't agree with the statement, college years are the best years of your life. True, I can get away with "spur of the moment" actions while in school and do things "professionals" aren't suppose to do, but at the same time I don't think these years are going to be the "peak" of my life. I honestly think my sister is living The Life. She graduated from East Texas Baptist University last spring, found a teaching job, moved out, and is on her own. I don't think you can get any better than living your life without having the NEED to depend on someone. This takes me back to the original thought, what is important right now? In order to get to The Life I need to work hard, just as she did, to get to where I want to go. Of course, we're in two different fields and it's a totally different process when branching out in the Communications/PR field, but the concept is the same. Do what you have to do, to do what you want to do. Of course, I'm not going to spend my summer working working working, but my priorities are with school, internship and networking and everything else comes after.
This past week, press kits were discussed with CasMacPR. I am familiar with the press kit process thanks to Raven Robinson and PR2Politics. My only problem with this task was that I really didn't know anything about my client. I knew what the public knew about her as far as what's on the website and social sites, but I've yet to set up a meeting with the client. That's one of the downsides to virtual internships. Because this is not a 9-5 office internship, it is harder to schedule Skype calls and appointments to meet up with people. The process is very flexible, and very ideal for those who are just doing this one virtual internship, but for others who have multiple commitments it may get a little frustrating and tiring to adjust to at times.
All and all, this is a learning experience, not only about the field of PR, but my future and my priority list in life. :)
-Creatively Dream
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