One day in the brisk winter of upstate New York I was doom scrolling through Instagram, while I was scrolling through an unexpected internship application that appeared in the middle of my feed. I decided to scroll through every single slide of the post, it was for a whale watching company located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As I continued to read more into the post, I read the following line that really resonated with me: “You do not need to be a marine biology or biology major to apply for this internship.” So you know what I did? I took a step out of my comfort zone and decided to go through the multiple page application, ask my professors and former coworkers for letters of recommendation, and finally I submitted my application.
A few weeks later, I received an email from their Director of Conservation and Education asking if I would be interested/available to interview with her. I interviewed with her a few days later and I’ll admit it was the most intimidating interview I have done in my very minimal career experience so far. Fast forward a few weeks and she offered me the educational internship position, I said yes and set out for Cape Cod as soon as my junior year finished.
I started my internship about a day after I arrived on Cape Cod, it was difficult at first because I had never collected data before and I really did not know much about whales or the area in general. But by the end of summer I was an expert. This past summer was the best summer I’ve ever had I was fortunate enough to meet the crew members who then became family, so many different passengers who were always willing to learn about the whales and who were gracious enough to allow for me to double check with the lead naturalist before giving them an answer to their questions. My off days were spent golfing, playing pickleball, or tanning at the beach. Moral of the story is even if it’s out of your comfort zone, your career path, the state that you call home, take the opportunity to accept the position it may be the best one you’ll ever have.