The Before

The events of the morning prior to my first internship interview; lets set the scene shall we?

I’m in my bed. I’ve been here for two days. Unable to breath, sneezing several times a minute, muscle aches, chills, fatigue, overwhelming feeling of yuckiness... guess yet? Oh yes, the flu, the day of my very first internship interview and I have the flu. And I’m not talking slight flu, oh no, full blown, all out, balls to the wall, flu.

I get out of bed (because I have to go to campus to turn in a paper). I’m in yoga pants so I figure that’s legit and just throw on a sweatshirt. I grab my keys, one quarter for the meter, my ID, and a ponytail. This is happening.

Once on campus I trek to the library. People look at me like I’m Typhoid Mary. Clearly I have an aura of sickliness resonating from my very being. This is sad to me but I have a mission. I find the one empty computer in the lab, the kid sitting at the one next to me looks like he may cry, I feel a little bad, but I print my paper and get out fast in order to expose as few people as possible. I leave to head to my professors office. I don’t know where it is. Epic. Sad.

I see a passing professor and ask him to point me in the right direction, I’ve been wandering the hallway that runs parallel to the one where his office is located. Slight fail but I persevere! I finally find my professor, I reach out and hand him my paper, he looks at me strangely, clearly wondering why I didn’t just wait to turn it in, in five minuets when class starts. “I have the flu,” I say.

He recoils and my soul dies a little. He looks at my paper as if I’d handed him a vat of toxic waste. “I just printed it,” I say, and he looks relieved. I walk away as he tells me to get well soon. I am not fooled, he’s still trying to calculate the odds that he will get my flu from the paper I held for a full three minutes max. It’s okay though, I can be strong, when you’re a walking virus you have to learn to be independent.

(check back later for the story of the interview)