my new summer personality ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ
Okay here we go...
The anticipation that I felt during the months both leading up to and during the MAIP application process was unexplainable. I felt an immense pressure to land an internship for this upcoming summer as I knew that it would be essential to launching my career towards the trajectory that I had been planning for the past year and a half.
For most of my life, I had plans to become a professional dancer -- it was the only thing that I felt genuine passion towards and at the time, I couldn't imagine my life without it. So you can only imagine the stress and worry I experienced once reality settled in once I realized that pursuing such a career wouldn't be feasible in the long run. I truly had no idea what other types of career I could pursue that would allow me to experience the familiar sense of satisfaction and empathy that I felt towards dance.
I found out about the MAIP program after a coffee chat with an alumni and it truly was the answer I had been searching for amidst the fog of questions as a young adult. The entire process of interviewing, anticipating emails, and Zoom breakout room conversations went by in a blur that I suddenly found myself accepting my internship offer in the public restroom at the MET. Looking back, I probably should have had a more formal set up, but I think being in one of the most casual environments while opening a long-awaited notification balanced out my anxiety perfectly.
Since then, I've been able to meet so many different personalities and learn about how everyone was able to get to the same place that I was in. I won't lie, I was dealing with intense feelings of "imposter syndrome." I already had worries about being able to getting accepted into the program initially; I felt that my creative background wasn't enough compared to those around me, everything that I had been apart of until that point seemed miniscule. But after getting to know the other MAIPers more one Zoom at a time, I soon came to the realization that almost everyone felt a similar way. We were all faking it til we made it.
It was the little moments in between that provided unexpected comfort for me the most. After I realized that I wasn't the only one who was constantly worrying about what to say or do next, I started to feel more at ease and allowed myself to start enjoying the process more. Every MAIP partner, alumni, or fellow have all spoken highly of the relationships they've made since their time with the program but I never would have thought it could be this vast. Aspects like this only excite more for what's to come in the future and motivates me to continue working towards what I hope to achieve these next couple of years within the advertising industry.