Intern Diaries: First Experiences -Week 1&2

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Hey Guys, this is my second post on my intern diary series! Like I said in the first post, I planned to start out a 6-month journey with the brightest of hopes but my first week was synonymous to living a hell life and my second week began like a crazy one.

(READ MY STARTER POST HERE IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY)

WEEK 1:

Monday came and I was still very unsure of where I’d be having my internship. I had two choices, one secured by “connections” and the other, not confirmed at all. My preferred choice was the latter, I had searched for it myself and felt like it’d be a great opportunity for me. I screwed up the “connections” choice that same day🤦‍♀️. It was a very stupid move on my part but a lesson well learnt.

Tuesday came and I was up and ready for my new place of work(the other one). I didn’t anticipate the 7 hours of journey and I definitely didn’t anticipate the overwhelming fear and dread that I had passed my boundaries and I wouldn’t be able to survive/cope .

It was really terrifying and I started looking for a way out. I don’t like to run away from my problems but my very first instinct is to run. It took me friends, family and long days of thought to realise that I’d never have gotten there if it wasn’t God’s plan. I also realised I’d be doing myself and MY GRADES a big disservice .

I spent Wednesday at home partly because of the previous day’s journey, partly because of fear and partly because I ran into an accident.

Thursday came and I went to work in fear. My parents had talked to my training head and I was to spend the night with her and we’d look for a much closer accommodation. I finally spoke out bits of my fears and worries and the advice I got were enough to take me through the rest of the Thursday and Friday.

That week was one of those moments where I realised how it felt to be hopeless, how to have dreams but be too afraid to achieve them, how scared you can get if your life was a mess and more importantly, how all of that hopelessness was the everyday reality of some people.

BUT I SORT OF GOT THROUGH IT.

SO YOU CAN TOO.

WEEK 2:

I moved to a closer accommodation in Lagos and that reduced my commuting situation from 7 hours+Stress to about 2hours+less stress. I slowly got started on the project I was to work on.

Monday came and it was soo eventful. Barely hours into the day, police officers with huge guns and some other officials barged in. We were shouted at and told to pause all activities , hand over our phones and close our laptops. I was already soo scared and didn’t know what was going on. We were then told to move out of our workstations and into another office. I later got to realise they were EFCC officials, were actually ILLEGALLY there because of some project. They refused to listen to reason and right before my eyes, one of the company heads was threatened by gunned police officers and manhandled into their vehicle because “he was claiming rights”.

I can’t go much further than that but it really was terrifying. These people have the ability to kill and they’d get away with it. They think they are above the law simply because they “are the law”.

And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I got debited without receiving cash from an ATM and on my way home, the craziest thing happened!!

Barely a minute after alighting from a bus in Mushin, I saw a guy trying to stab some other guys to death, right before my eyes. The guy came running beside me and the next thing I see is a knife, held by him and aimed at a guy’s head and then another’s stomach.

It all happened soo fast and he was chasing them. I was scared to death and I ran soo fast I didn’t even know what hit me.

Craziest day of that week really!!

The rest of the days were quite normal, I got to talk more and although I haven’t gotten used to them, I think they all already realise that I’m a socially awkward person and that I don’t warm up easily☹️.

Highlight of my week was getting to work on a project and my training head being impressed with it. The “higher Ogas” were more criticizing and I actually felt like a goat being slaughtered, but I understand it was all a way of teaching and wanting us to be BETTER.