Shortly after I posted the previous stress-filled panic post, when one of my coworkers (former classmate, heading to an internship in DC) told me and another coworker* (another former classmate, heading into a different internship in NC) that she was so relieved because she just found out what hospital she’ll being doing her clinical rotations at. The coworker staying in NC spoke to me about how she was getting nervous because they had only gotten one thing from their internship. And it struck me: we’re all a little nervous. We’re nervous about starting the internship. We’re nervous about how well we’re going to do during the internship. We’re nervous about passing the RD exam after the internship. We’re nervous about finding a job after the internship.
We’re all in the same boat of nervousness.
Current and recent interns (relatively newly minted RDs) have really been a big help in dealing with the nervousness. They’ve been so great in sharing their experiences, which makes me further convinced to keep to doing this blog. Other soon-to-be-interns have also been helpful, because we share information about our internships – what books each internship suggests, what we’ve been reviewing, what classnotes we’re keeping, etc.
So for any other soon-to-be-interns out there: we’re all in this together. We’re all nervous. But if the current and recent interns are to be trusted (and I think they are) – it’s all going to be okay. Just like the DICAS application, we just need to take this one step at a time. We passed the big hurdle of getting an internship, now we just need to “lean into it” and push through. We’ll get through it and we’ll survive and thrive.
We just have to remember that.
*Sorry if this is confusing, but unless they give permission, I don’t want to use their names. Hrm.. maybe I’ll start changing names, like they do in a lot of women’s magazine articles about embarassing experiences.
Dispatches from the DI 