Summer — a time for barbeques, trips to the beach, and some serious drinking. So where the hell does waking up at the crack of dawn fit in?

Not long ago, 1 p.m. was an acceptable hour for me to drag myself out of bed. My roommate would often upstage my extreme sleeping habits by dozing into the late afternoon. We would shudder collectively at the thought of waking up at the extreme early morning hour of 10 a.m.

However, as soon as the summer began and I moved back to a land free of all nighters in the study lounge, loud parties across the hall, and most importantly, the incessant overbearing stress of school, I began to wake up at 7 a.m. on a daily basis for my internship and job.

I’m not going to pretend it was easy. The first few days the morning sun burned my eyes and I had to physically throw myself out of bed. I cursed myself for having responsibilities and stumbled around my house like a wounded animal. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Despite this rocky start, it wasn’t long before I began to recognize the many benefits of rising at a decent hour:

Breakfast: Let’s get real. Breakfast food is some of the best stuff out there. Bagels, pancakes, cereal, fruit- it doesn’t get much better than that. Having time to actually eat it is a precious opportunity. Not only is breakfast food delicious, it’s part of a nutritionally balanced diet. Read More »

Today I woke up at home, in my childhood bed, after two consecutive all-nighters, a killer three – hour essay exam, and being told I had to move from my apartment building with one week’s notice to find two emails in my inbox:

1. I had been rejected from Random House’s Summer Internship program, and 2. I had been rejected for a summer fellowship from the New York Historical Society. There was also an email from jcrew.com, which I would usually delete, but today I found myself reading about argyle sock sales just to take the edge off the two other stingers.

I don’t get it — I’m a perfectly desirable candidate. I look great on paper. So where’s the summer love (in the form of a paid internship in my desired field)?

Last February I decided that I had to move to NYC for the summer and work somewhere awesome. So, I applied to about sixty places, no joke. I only heard back from five, and was flat – out rejected from two. So who are these bionic college students that must be my hidden competition? Read More »

I am the queen of summer jobs and internships.

I have done everything from chase kids around in nurseries to waitressing to getting covered in dirt in a greenhouse to working in a tiny cubicle in a Manhattan talent office to running errands for a crazy agent to making pizza for one day.

Looking back, there are so many things I wish I could have told my little 19 year old self during her first foray into living alone and interning in New York City. One of those things would be to never eat the coleslaw in any restaurant (they totally reuse that shit), but I would also tell her how to deal with completely psychotic bosses and why it’s okay to lie to certain part time employers. Read More »