Adapting to A New Lifestyle

Hello everyone! Welcome back for an update on how our summer in DC is going. We have been here just a little over a month (wow where is time going?!?!) and it seems we are finally starting to settle into our daily routines. It is in the little things that I realize I am actually living in DC and thriving in navigating the lifestyle; for instance, I went to meet my coworkers for a staff breakfast at the Wharf and I had to take a different metro line than I usually do. As I arrived at the breakfast establishment I realized I had seamlessly found my way, and felt comfortable walking through new areas of the city. I think as a perfectionist and overachiever, perhaps qualities a lot of William & Mary students possess, there is always that little voice in the back of my head saying you haven’t done enough or worked hard enough. However, as my grandparents always say: Results! Don’t get stuck in the problems and acknowledge your victories. So navigating the metro, establishing a healthy morning routine, making dinner after a long day at work, taking the time to get coffee with someone in the program and see how they are doing… these have been encouraging victories throughout my first month in DC.

For future students of this program, I imagine you must want to know exactly what a day looks like (I know throughout my application process and in preparation to start I did). The exciting thing is that everyone in the program is shaping their time here to fit them best, so here is a little bit of what I am doing: My internship provides me with the opportunity to work in our office on Mondays and Fridays while doing remote work the rest of the week. I have loved this component because I get the experience of a professional setting in which I work from my own desk and go to our weekly meetings in a large conference room with all the staff. However at the same time I am challenged to work from spaces where I can nurture my own creativity and ensure I stick to a schedule. Certainly there are days that working from my couch is the way to go, while other days I work from the William & Mary DC office (accompanied by the AMAZING staff that make all these opportunities possible for us) and other days I am at a coffee shop in a neighborhood in DC I am exploring throughout the day. I am so grateful for this structure because it creates a place for me to grow in various areas regarding work ethic, innovation and personal development.

So what is up next you might ask. Great question! My goal for the next couple of weeks is to pick out two new neighborhoods to visit on the days that I work remote and make time to just walk around and take in the scenery. One of the things we were taught throughout our two week class was to be in a continuous process of learning; I am choosing to employ this in hearing Podcasts and reading about subjects I am interested in, yet have not been able to pay much attention to in the past. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, time is going by quickly. So one really needs to schedule out things outside of work. For me that is reading, journaling, exploring, and building community. So join me in making time for growth! I am partly doing this by dedicating a day of the week to a topic, like Networking Mondays (I know its not alliteration but it does the job) and Writing Wednesdays.

The greatest aspect of this summer for us is learning and growing, so if anyone has a recommendation or a challenge for us, please make any suggestions in the comments! Thank you for reading and supporting us in our time in DC.

Mariana