Australia has given me no shortage on things to blog about! It's so hard to sit here and decide what to share, so I'll do my best to give you a glimpse of life since my last update.
Culture shock and homesickness are so real, but the good news is they don't last. As long as you keep moving, so do they.
My internship has been incredible. I work for an organization called HerBusiness which seeks to empower businesswomen by giving them resources to grow their business and develop their leadership skills. I specifically work with their communications, writing blogs and other pieces for their websites, writing other resource materials, editing ebooks, and any other tasks that are related. The office and team is small, but they are so efficient. They are so kind to truly invest in me, and let me learn from them. I get to sit in on staff meetings and be a part of all they do.
I will say that you get out of your internship what you are willing to put in. I am in an environment that has a lot of freedom, and I can use it wisely or not. I quickly realized that I could do more for their business than what they were asking of me, so I sought out ways I could be of better help. Once in a staff meeting, an idea got brought up that sparked my interest. It was a quick idea just being thrown out and not really developed, but as I went back to my desk, I really saw the potential in it. I spent my free time that day thinking on it and by the end had really developed the idea. At the end of each day, I fill out an intern report just saying what I completed for the day and if I have questions. They also always ask if I have suggestions so I said I did and sent an email with my idea.
They loved it! I shared it at the next staff meeting and others took time to make suggestions and come up with a plan. I now am the lead person working on the project. It's a campaign to tell the stories of our customers that have had success with our mentoring program. I have interviewed several mentoring pairs and written stories about how it helped their business. Now we are sharing the stories with our members in hopes to inspire them if they have been thinking about it to take the next step.
The stories have been amazing and even inspired me. But if I had sat in the back of the office content in what little I was doing, I would not have had this opportunity. I now have had a chance to develop my skills more and have incredible pieces to put on my resume that have been published on an award winning Australian business blog.
Always look for more and keep pushing yourself. You know yourself best and you are usually more capable than you are aware of. Take risks! The worst that could happen is a no.
If I have learned anything from HerBusiness it's that we need to welcome opportunities for failures into our lives more. They teach us and grow us, and just because we could fail doesn't mean we will!
I'm so grateful for this huge opportunity in Australia - one that had many risks and potential failures. But not even time have I failed and when I have, I have tried harder the next time.
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