The various tasks and projects that kept my time occupied at my internship were slowly coming to a halt. I no longer had clients to contact because it was our turn to wait for their responses. I grew very bored at work as my boss told me to look up more events for our company to be a part of for promotions. This was a task that I was suggested to do when there was not much to do. I felt frustrated at this because this tedious task made me feel as if I had little importance to the company. My boss had given me so much independence and freedom it seemed as if she did not care what I did or if I was even there at all. This independence forced me to find self motivation.
Self motivation at this point was not only a problem for me at work but also in other aspects of my living in Rome. I had been in the city for a few weeks now and had grown into a bland routine: class, work, dinner and sleep. This routine made me miss home which upset me because here I was in this amazing country experiencing a once in a life time opportunity and I was thinking about being back in America. My desire to be at home with my friends and family whom I had not seen in several weeks led to a built up of frustration. I needed to find a way to turn this negative energy in to positive.
To start my transition from negative to positive energy I started by making goals for myself at work. If my boss was going to give me the freedom to do what I wanted then I needed to figure out exactly what it was that I wanted. I referred back to class concepts that I had learned in school and how I could apply them to my internship. I thought about how popular social media had become for businesses back in America and I thought that I could help out with this in Rome. I took on managing Facebook and Twitter; however it was not as easy as I had thought it would be. My internship’s social media viewers spoke Italian which meant that I needed to post in Italian on the sites. Due to my lack of ability to speak Italian I grew flustered, but I persevered through this obstacle by using resources such as Google Translate. Perseverance and problem solving were some skills that I improved while in Rome.
I used problem solving to deal with one of my frustrations that was within the city itself: the bus system. It took me at least an hour to wait for the bus and get to my destination which added on to the length of my workday. When I finally got on the bus it was hot and crowded with numerous people rushing to get to their destinations. I decided that I needed to find an alternative to the bus to avoid this irritation ruining my day. The alternative that I chose was walking, which seems like an obvious alternative but in the beginning of the program I grew tired from constantly walking throughout Rome. I decided to look at it in a positive way that walking would be great exercise. I also could listen to my iPod with “feel good” songs throughout my walk. These upbeat songs put me in a great mood and made my 30 minute walk, instead of an hour bus ride, quite pleasant. I was able to enjoy the outdoors and embrace the beautiful scenery that I had been taking for granted. By finding ways to turn my negatives into positives I was able to appreciate Rome again and grew more excited about my weeks to come.