As you approach the much-awaited real-world experiences of your internship, it’s important to address the concept of attainable expectations. Often, interns hold onto expectations so tightly that they’re disappointed when their experiences fall short.
Going to Disneyland? Oh, it’s raining that day. Meeting up with a friend for the first time in a while? They canceled because something came up. Starting an internship experience that checks all your boxes? Reality ends up more complex than a list of wishes.
Obviously, these are typical cases of unmet expectations, but I want to assure you that your internship experience will provide you with great professional learning opportunities!
One of my favorite book series, Anne of Green Gables, illustrates the challenge of managing outsized expectations. Characteristically over-excited, the main character, Anne, expects great things from the church picnic. Marilla, Anne’s adoptive mother, assures Anne that there will be many disappointments in life; it’s discouraging to set your heart on so many things. Anne enthusiastically replies:
Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them...You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.’ But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.
Being excited about things, despite looming, yet unpredictable disappointment can make space for a marvelous experience. It’s better to expect something and be disappointed than have no expectations at all, Anne explains.
My experience applying for internships brewed high hopes for the experiences I would have. I imagined my internship would include some kind of copywriting or writing tutoring. Those experiences would fully line up with my goal to eventually teach at a collegiate level. These were expectations that I was immovable on.
Instead, I got an internship that I knew absolutely nothing about. I was hired by a medical software company as an Instructional Designer. How in the world was this position going to help me reach my aspiration to become a college teacher?
I didn’t know how to be an instructional designer. I didn’t know how to translate the technical jargon the company used into words I actually understood. I didn’t know what to expect from this internship. While I wanted something that was writing intensive–something that would challenge the rhetorical and literary concepts that I had learned throughout my time in BYU’s English program–I really didn’t understand how much this internship would push me.
Looking back on my internship experience, I now realize that I learned something extremely valuable that was ultimately beneficial for both me and my company.
My time as a student had conditioned me to work with people who shared the same educational background. I had become comfortable with academic-type conversations about recognized novels and literary theories.
But, moving to this new environment, one that I wasn’t fully comfortable in, I learned that there are multiple ways to apply the things I learned as an English major, including to professional activities like instructional design.
Like Anne, I think having expectations allowed me to create a rewarding internship experience. Although it wasn’t a position I was entirely interested in, my experience helped me to learn that, like myself with the software I was working with, not everyone has the same level or type of knowledge. It helped me recognize that, moving forward I could adapt techniques I was learning to the field of teaching.
People from all kinds of backgrounds and educational backgrounds go to school. Taking what I learned from my internship, I can apply my experience as a beginner to putting myself into my students’ shoes, recognizing that not everyone understands and sees English in the same way.
Expectations don’t need to be set in stone. Anne is right, “You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them.”
Although my internship wasn’t what I planned, my expectations for a good skill-building, professional opportunity drove my experience in an impactful direction. Whether it’s with an imperfect Disneyland trip, a missed opportunity to meet a friend, or an internship you weren’t
planning on having, your expectations influence the direction you go in and ultimately set the tone for your experiences.