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Why I Love Internships (And You Should Too!)

11 Oct 2016 “The soul must be courageous enough to live fully in the human experience with the time given it.”

Internships can be useful for anyone, any age, or any stage of life.

I was 43 years old when life dealt me some cards that there was no coming back from unless I was willing to reinvent myself. So, instead of sulk into the lie that I was washed up and too old to pursue another career, I got busy using my downtime to investigate interests and passions my former success did not allow me to experience.

I also took a hard look at my beliefs and my purpose too.

After three months of mulling over my options, I chose the industry of spa and wellness. My next step would be choosing a course of training. Deciding that university would require me to take on long term debt, I opted for Spa Management Certification.

My training journey to certification would result in powerful networking opportunities that would change my life, options, and opportunities in ways I could have never imagined. My networking opportunities were online in the form of email most of the time. It would not be my awesome GPA in the coursework but my ability to write content on the subject of wellness that would put me on the path to internship.

My internship opportunity found me because of the networking I did during my coursework. My writing skills were honed and polished during my internship. I also got experience in presentation, collaboration, working with the latest mobile office platforms and I even got to dabble in logo design and tagline development. Pretty cool for someone who stood behind a hair styling chair for 15 years. Eighteen months later, I would be offered a paid position with the organization I interned with organizing three committees with active members worldwide using the mobile office management skills I acquired during my internship.

The career path I am on right now would not have been possible without an experiential learning experience. I am doing work that I love and look forward to seeing what develops from this brand new set of skills, talents and contacts that my internship experience has unearthed. My old life path may have gone up in smoke, but the path of internship allowed me to rise like a phoenix to a whole new and very bright future.

If you get an opportunity to do an internship, by all means, get over your fear and say YES to your success. My internship was unpaid and I willingly made whatever sacrifices were necessary to complete the process. I am so glad that I did it. I learned so much about myself, my potential and what I still had to offer. Don’t be afraid to learn new things on this journey. You may surprise yourself at what you are good at.

Being brave enough to walk away from the life and career I built was actually the best thing that could have happened to me.

You don’t have to be twenty-five in order to change careers.

In fact, life can introduce catalysts of change in the form of all kinds of catastrophic events. It will be up to you to see the opportunity.

All you need is a burning passion for change and the courage to ride the catalyst that gets you on your new path to success.

Life is unpredictable but can still be an amazing journey if you choose to live fully and seize opportunity even when it knocks on your door in the form of a storm.

By Khumura Khumnetertauset