Week 5

And we’re back after another week! Unfortunately, this week was plagued with me being sick with a pretty nasty head cold, so all of my projects went on hold. Otherwise, things around here are kind of set up to be different on a day to day basis, as I only really have one over-arching project for the summer, which is redoing the barcoding system for our storage rooms. That project is currently out of my hands, as our barcoding company is (as we speak!) printing out the new codes and creating the new format. So, stay tuned for the progress on that project. Other than that, what I do here mostly depends on what is needed for the day. That means that the other day I had to trek to a local hotel with two unwieldy luggage carts in tow to pick up some donated banquet tables and then take them back to the House without causing an accident on the ever-popular Michigan Avenue. Not knowing what I will be doing each day was definitely an adjustment for me at first, as I’m so used to having a specific plan and completing tasks off of a to-do list. Because there’s such a small staff here, that doesn’t work all of the time. They need interns to be flexible; therefore, I think developing this heightened sense of flexibility has been a major lesson I’ve learned so far with this internship. Additionally, it has surprised me how dedicated the staff members here are. Many of them are required to work overnight shifts to ensure there is always a trained staff member on duty on the off chance something happens with one of the families staying in the House. Working odd hours may seem like a nuisance to many, but everyone I’ve interacted with her loves the House so much that they would be willing to dedicate any amount of time to it. A highlight from this week was definitely spending the day downtown at one of the beaches in Chicago yesterday! Everyone is always so surprised to hear that Chicago has beaches– and even though they’re definitely unlike what people are used to in Florida, they’re beaches all the same! It was about 100 degrees yesterday, so Lake Michigan was a nice polar plunge to take some of the heat off!