A low-paying internship in NYC is basically slave labor. But you do it because you hope it will actually get you somewhere. Here are the struggles you experience while you’re still on your way:
1. Your choices are commute, get a food service job nights and weekends, live with your parents, or some combination of the three.
2. If you commute, you spend way more time on public transit than you ever wanted to.
3. If you work in food service, you’re constantly waiting on people who have more money than you but still don’t tip well.
4. And if you live with your parents you live in constant fear that you’ll get stuck there until you’re 40.
5. You can’t shake the inferiority complex you have to your friends who chose more lucrative majors and now have jobs in computer science engineering or investment banking.
6. “No, I can’t go out tonight. If I spend my money on booze I won’t be able to eat tomorrow.”
7. You all of a sudden want things just because you can’t afford them. “Gee, I would really love to own a sailboat someday…”
8. A chicken burrito at Chipotle costs $9 without guacamole.
9. Sleep isn’t a thing that happens very often.
10. Just forget about dating. Seriously don’t even try it.
11. You have no money to refill your Metro card and you have three weeks until you get paid. Looks like you’re walking.
12. You have no interest in grad school but you consider it just so you don’t have to pay back your loans yet.
13. You wonder all the time whether you made a terrible mistake and should have chosen a different career path.
14. You remember that you’re actually following your dreams, but you have no idea when you’ll actually achieve them.
