The Intern Files: National Park Service

The following blog post was written by peer advisor Michaela, a senior in SEAS studying civil engineering and international affairs. To find out more about Michaela, see her bio here. 
This past summer, I interned as an Engineering Technician for the National Park Service, in the National Mall and Memorial Parks. You know those weird-wonderful dreams you’ve had where you became a resident of Pawnee, Indiana, and got to chase Lil’ Sebastian (Rest in Peace) and accidentally marry gay penguins? Well, as an avid fan of Parks and Recreation, I now had the opportunity to live that dream, or so I thought.
Don’t get me wrong, I came in as a strong Leslie Knope, with unbridled enthusiasm, ready to break into the boy’s club of park maintenance and renovations. But after the glow of being employed by a great organization wore off, after realizing that my job was predominantly computer based, and especially after walking up every stair of the Washington Monument (that thing is too tall), I started to identify more with April Ludgate. I worked on drawings of bathroom renovations and concrete plans, sat in a cubicle, and rarely got to go outside. Because of this and the fact that much of my job was to point out flaws in the parks and memorials, April’s deadpan humor and utter hatred of her internship made a lot of sense. Coming to work became a drag, and I realized that working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week can get really boring.
There were moments where I remembered my Knope-ish side, however. Case in point: The M. One day, our Cultural Architect walked in with multiple pictures of an M. Actually not an M, but a lack of an M. You see, there is an inscription on a stone on the ground of the Korean War Memorial, all in metal plated letters. An M had popped off of the inscription in March, and it needed to be replaced before Korean government officials visited DC in a couple weeks. We didn’t have any drawings of the M in our files, so the Cultural Architect and I scanned the picture of where the M was supposed to be, drew and cut a couple Ms, and then headed out to the memorial to see which one fit best. Now instead of wondering about urinal heights behind a computer, I was crouched over hot stones at the Korean War Memorial, debating M angles, while many tourists and tour groups walked by, some of them taking pictures of our desperate attempts to find the perfect M. Some tourists asked us questions and thanked us for our work (I had no idea what they were talking about. I mean come on, it’s an M). One woman even teared up at our devotion to the memorial and, by the transitive property, our nation.
I tell this story because while yes, I was extremely bored the majority of my internship, there were moments that were unbelievably entertaining and engaging. There were moments that made the boredom bearable because despite working on drawings, I was indirectly helping people experience our nation’s history through its memorials and parks. There were moments when yes, that weird dream was reality and my coworkers and I had the comedic timing of the Parks and Rec crew. But an internship is, in fact, a full-time, tiring, job, and it’s ok to feel like April Ludgate about your internship. Just so long as you feel like Leslie Knope about your career, and keep enthusiasm about the future.