It was my 8th hour staring at the computer screen and I couldn’t wait to be set free! Any minute, my boss would come by and tell me that I was done for the day. At least I had a lunch break. My bosses had to order in food and eat in their office because they had so much work to do. And at least I was about to leave. They would be stuck in the office until who knows when.
I didn’t spend every day of my Derek Lam footwear design internship silently staring at the computer rendering CAD after CAD. Just most of them.
Sometimes I got to stare at the computer and pull inspiration! Sometimes I got to organize things. Sometimes I got to create chain designs out of paper! Sometimes I got to run errands!
My other previous internships were no better. I interned for a jewelry design company, Eddie Borgo, where someone in the office cried every day because a co-worker had written a nasty email about them.
I spent my days packaging 1000 necklaces, earrings, and bracelets and hearing people bitch because all they’d put in their bodies in the past week was juice.
And maybe the occasional drunken McDonalds binge.
From my observations, my bosses had very little creative freedom. They also had very little positive interactions with their co-workers. My bosses at this other footwear design internship, Highline United, were all really great, funny, sociable people but yet still spent most of their days in silence.
As fun as the Fashion Institute of Technology was, the industry didn’t seem to reflect that at all. So I applied to work at a camp after graduation. And I was pressured from my friend, Day, to go on birthright with her after that so I applied to that too.
I worked as an outdoor adventure specialist at Trails End Camp and had a great time.
Day backed out of birthright and Israel was in chaos (what’s new?) so I was planning on skipping birthright but when I got back from camp I had the realization that I was going to have to get a job so I decided birthright didn’t sound so bad after all.
The organized tour promoting Judaism definitely was not for me but the people on the tour were unique, fun, and mature so I had a great experience. Everyone got along really well!
On the way back from Israel, we had a layover in Vienna so I made the slightly drunk decision to get off there and travel Europe. I ended up in Europe for almost 2 months.
When I returned in November, I was poor so I lived with my mom in Connecticut to save up money.
I didn’t want to find a career yet because I decided that in January I was going to travel the US until I found somewhere that I wanted to live and move there. I had a family trip to Florida in January so I’d go from there. I decided that if I was going to have a career that I didn’t like, I should at least live somewhere that I love.
I first went to Charleston, then Nashville, then Denver where I decided to stay. But as it turned out, they didn’t have any decent fashion design opportunities so I got a job as a server.
And then I started dating this guy Tommy. On our free days (which we had a lot of as servers) we’d go to hot springs, amusement parks, hiking, etc.
Because I didn’t have a career, I was able to go traveling for 3 weeks in Colombia.
After I moved to a mountain town in Colorado.
Now I snowboard to get to my serving job. And the job is seasonal so it’s a great excuse to go travel when it’s over. I love not having a career!
Explorgasm 