Coding emails all day for hours wasn’t my cup of tea, and it showed. I wasn’t looking forward to going to work every morning when I woke up and I walked around the office in a depressed mood. I did not feel as though my skills were being used to the office’s advantage, but rather, I was doing mindless work that anyone that knew how to read could do. After a couple of weeks of thinking about my situation and convincing myself that it wasn’t worth mentioning to my supervisor since I only had a few more weeks at my internship, I decided to go to my supervisor’s office and let them know that I wasn’t happy with the work I was doing and wanted to do something that would be more engaging and interactive than just sitting in front of a computer screen and typing codes. I was still a bit hesitant about letting them know how I really felt because I didn’t want them to regret picking me for this internship nor think that I wasn’t capable of being flexible and adaptable, a skill that is a must for interns.
A few days after that, I was transferred over the scanning department within mail analysis. There, I was responsible for sorting hard mail into categories, bundling those categories and preparing them for scanning, scanning bundles, and sending them electronically to the scanning department. I also made copies of correspondence that was double-sided since that couldn’t go through the scanner, delivering mail to the students and greetings departments, and archived mail for the National Archives and Records Administration It was neat to think that the mail that was in my hands now could possibly be on display in a number of years as a record from the Obama administration. This new task was definitely more interactive and engaging than coding emails.
On the other hand, the Embassy of Jordan was a different experience. There, I learned a lot by reading articles that are tied to Jordan and the Middle East. It was my responsibility every day to summarize 10-15 articles, which were sent to the Jordanian government to see what media outlets are saying about them and the region. I also did government ministering reports, which entailed going through the White House and Department of State press briefings, and compiling comments about Jordan and the Middle East into a report.
