Mission: Accomplished

On Thursday, I was given my first “mission” at my internship. I was going to have to call a whole bunch of businesses, radio stations, and newspapers to talk about a promotional item and see if they were interested.

Let’s repeat. I had to call major businesses, radio stations, and newspapers. Do I need to remind you of my phone phobia? My phone phobia where sometimes I’m so nervous to make a doctor’s appointment that I keep putting it off? I knew this was going to be a test of my abilities and it was extremely nerve-wracking, especially since I was calling from my cubicle where everyone in the office could hear me. But I called these places (about 20 total) and it wasn’t as awful as I first suspected. It actually ended up being kind of fun! Imagine that! I would definitely chalk this down as a Good Experience.

After calling the places, I then had to hand-deliver the items. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Only problem was, I had to deliver them downtown, which is full (FULL!) of one-way streets. And sure, I’ve grown up in this area but always in the northern part. I’ve ventured down to downtown a few times but I’m either a.) not driving or b.) know exactly where I’m going. (My university is downtown but super easy to find.)

Hand-delivering the show tickets was just the beginning of my mission. I’ll give a quick recap:

• I turned left down a street and couldn’t seem to find where to turn exactly so I ended up driving through the bus stop lane. Luckily, there was nobody around and no buses during that time but can we spell e m b a r r a s s i n g?
• MapQuest gave me completely wrong directions and I ended up in a boating park. (Thank God for the GPS on my phone.)
• I was so flustered by the wrong directions MapQuest gave me, that I stopped for probably 5 minutes at a stop sign until finally realizing it was a stop sign and not a red light.
• While turning right onto a street, I hit a curb badly. And I’m talking made the back end of the car bounce and the CD skip badly. I don’t think the tire is ruined (yet) but it scared me. I would be lying if I didn’t almost start crying and wishing for my mom at that moment.
• I stopped at 2 green lights for a full 2 minutes.
• I parked at a few metered parking spots and had to rush to my destination, hand over the items, and rush back to my car. I was scared to death I was going to get a ticket for sitting at a metered parking spot for 3 minutes!
• I drove past so many streets, it wasn’t even funny. (Especially when it’s noon and the only food in your body is have a bowl of soggy cornflakes. I don’t function well when I’m starving and weak.) And since I’m downtown and around one-way streets, if you drive past the street you need to be on, you have to drive at least five blocks to the next available street to turn on to get to where you need to be.

All in all, it was an adventure. But it was also fun. It was neat going to all these different places and seeing the people who worked there. I went to an art studio for one delivery and for the first time in my life, I thought about becoming an artist. (But since I can’t draw a stick figure without messing it up, I know that’s not the path for me.) And I’m learning more and more about downtown and I’m hoping my next adventure won’t be as crazy.

I knew this internship would stretch me as a person. I would have to do things I wasn’t totally comfortable with and get over my fears. And it’s doing that. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone and stepping into the path of a career woman. It’s scary, exciting, frightening, and thrilling. It’s a slow process but I’m getting there.

And that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I take a leap of faith out of my comfort zone and into something completely different that Old Stephany? It’s amazing. And I want to have that feeling every day.

There’s a new post on my weight loss blog: Blogging to Lose. This week, I’m talking about taking this whole healthy lifestyle approach slow and steady. Check it out!