We're not in Kansas Anymore

This past school year, my part-time job was to nanny the cutest one-year-old boy (if you want to see him, I’ve got pictures all over my cubicle). The dress code for this job was yoga pants, t-shirts, and a spit up cloth for my shoulder. My breaks consisted of doing homework, checking email, and watching TV while he napped for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.

After leaving my nanny job in Cincinnati in May, I figured I was in for a rude awakening when starting my internship at Liggett in June. The yoga pants and t-shirts weren’t going to fly, and the days of two-hour TV breaks were gone. Yes, I’d have to wake up at 6am like the rest of the working world, not to mention I’d have to go to bed between 10 and 11pm like my parents. Going to bed between 10 and 11pm is certifiably insane for college students – we’re used to going out at this time on any given night (yes, that includes weeknights). I’d have to finally become a coffee drinker, and sit in traffic, too. I’d have to do all those “grown-up” things that I dreamed of doing as I watched my mom go off to work when I was little.

Since I’ve started my internship at Liggett, the awakening hasn’t been as rude as I thought. Yes, I had to replace the yoga pants and t-shirts for khakis and button down shirts, but it’s really not all that bad (except for ironing…I try to con my mom into doing this for me…but it hasn’t worked so far). Waking up early and getting into a routine has probably been the hardest, and I’m still getting used to the 830-5pm work schedule. And yes, I don’t get two-hour breaks in the mornings and afternoons, but we do get a lunch break. Today, actually, all the interns are going out to lunch together. I don’t know where yet, but at least we’ll feel really cool and grown up being around the professional “lunch crowd” in downtown Cleveland.

So, welcome to the real world of coffee, traffic, button down shirts, heels, dress pants, deadlines, conference calls, and meetings galore. This is the real world interns - we’re not in Kansas anymore.

Marie D.
Program Management Intern