I have always taken pride in my Sunday ritual during the school year. I wake up around 9 or 10, get bagels and coffee, then hit the library. Up until now, I had considered it an accomplishment to be able to sit in a chair for 6+ hours. When preparing for a test or a paper, I could even make it to 10-12 hours in the library. However, I always found myself sprinting out of the library when it was time to go. I found cubicles too enclosed, staring at neutral colors boring, waking up before 8 unheard of, and remembering to pack a lunch impossible.

Naturally, I was a bit nervous to take on my first real "desk job." Working at Heathrow Scientific has been a delightfully pleasant surprise. I discovered that having cubicle buddies is rather enjoyable, having an unlimited, free coffee supply keeps me perky, and having time to cook a nice meal or watch a movie at the end of the day does great things for my happiness. Most of all, I have really appreciated the conversations I have had with the people I work with. As Sarah mentioned, the grass is always greener on the the other side. Though I find some truth to this statement, working at Heathrow this summer has eliminated much of what I found daunting about the "real world," making both sides a little closer to being equally green.

If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that nothing is easy. Full-time job or full-time class load, each has its benefits and challenges.

During the school year, I would stay up late and chat online with my brother (working in Beijing, 12 hours ahead) while he was at work. We would always argue about whose life is harder. I’d complain about how he could go home and relax at the end of the day—about how he never had to stay up till 3-4AM to study for exams or write papers. He’d tell me about how exhausted he feels at the end of each day and how stressful work can be when the economy is fluctuating. While, there are times at Northwestern when I feel tired, unhealthy, and completely overwhelmed, I am still eternally grateful that I am still a student. Maybe, I feel that a full-time job is more difficult because of all the responsibilities that come along with it. In 2 years time, I’ll be hopefully employed and as I like to say, “a real person.” I’ll need to worry about bills, rent, cooking, etc. On top of that, I’ll need to work hard to keep my job and hopefully move up in the business world. When it comes to a full-time job, it’s not just poor grades or disappointed parents if you accidentally mess up an exam or falter, it’s your livelihood.

Farewell Fairway....

With the last week of the Scholar Program upon us, give one last farewell to Fairway and your experience here.

If 21 years of Chicago winters should teach me anything, it’s that grass, in fact, is not always greener on the other side. Yet, no matter what side I find myself, I can’t help but daydream of sprawling green fields just around the corner.

I fell into this slightly idealistic mentality while interning the past few months, as my thoughts occasionally would linger upon my school year self. In my head, this me radiated constant energy and never would succumb to the call of sleep. The college me never sits, never gets tired, and runs from class to class with a swag in her step, ready to conquer the next 10 items on her to-do list. For the work-me spending her day in the car and the office, nothing sounded more appealing than running around, waking up at 10am, and socializing with friends between classes.

Was the grass really that green six months ago? I reflect some more and hints of reality seep in, starting with the fact that never have I walked with a ‘swag’ in my step. Additionally, six months ago, I was sleep deprived and stuck in a never ending flow of midterms and finals. My brain hurt, my eyes ached, and I hardly could remember the last time I watched TV. This me drooled for the freedom soon to be mine as an intern. As an intern, I would have time to go out to dinner, watch movies, and spend the weekends away from the library. I envied the free evenings and free weekends of a 9-5 worker and filled my head with millions of exciting plans for life without school work.

While neither side is completely green, the two lives together make my version of a perfect life—one filled with activity and motion, people and interaction, work and play. These are the qualities I will carry with me as I leave the internship and start school, and the ones I will seek to preserve as I enter the real world.

Week 9

Working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day here at Fairway for 10 weeks of the summer and tunneling my way through the 40ish weeks of school per year at Northwestern are strikingly different undertakings that require completely different mental (and perhaps physical) resources and are taxing in their own wholly unique ways. But in my three years of college and my one summer at Fairway, one of the largest challenges I’ve encountered that happens to be common to both enterprises is simply sitting still—be it in a lecture hall listening to a professor drone on for an hour and 20 minute class or at an office desk for 8 consecutive hours, occasionally going cross-eyed from computer-glare.

If I have to pick the more difficult of the two—school or work—I might have to choose the latter, simply because it’s so radically different from what I’m accustomed to. Sure, classes at Northwestern pose their own challenges and obstacles and are time consuming to the nth degree. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to bed before 1am during the school year and here at Fairway, I’m snuggled under my covers at 11pm on the dot every night. But somehow, despite slumbering for a solid 8 hours every night vs. 6 hours—sometimes less—on a school night, I find myself even more tired at work. Maybe this is because I’m not moving around from class to home to class to extracurricular and back again (and I can’t just put my head down on my desk here to take a quick cat-nap in the same way that I can run home for a 20 minute snooze between classes). I think fresh air is also a huge part of being rejuvenated throughout the day. Even in negative degree, torrential rain, blizzard, or sweltering conditions (whatever weather Chicago’s temperamental mother nature decides on for the day), it’s always refreshing to walk (or run, depending on my tardiness) through the great outdoors, to or from my next class or activity.

The time I've spent here at Fairway has been wonderful, enlightening, and above all an immense learning experience for me—I’ve met new and interesting people, grown to understand what I do and don’t enjoy in an occupation, and have acquired new skills and knowledge that I might never have explored had I not been accepted as an intern here. And I’m sure that once I’m back in the full, stressful, whirlwind swing of academic life, coupled with job applications, extracurriculars, and the rushed, bittersweet senior-year-ness of it all, I will have a different mindset about present and past challenges; if someone asks the same question of me—which do I find more difficult, work or school?—I will probably respond, without a moment’s hesitation: school. The grass is always greener on the other side, isn’t it?

Week 7

Full time employment at Heathrow Scientific has definitely been way more challenging than a typical quarter at Northwestern.

Its all about the adjustments- I have been going to school for my whole life, this is the first time I have been working a traditional 9-5 job. I wouldn’t say that filming myself starring in product videos (such as the wonderful Mini Bin Foil Dispenser!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfVA9h0bgqw) is as mentally challenging as some of the typical classes at Northwestern. Yet, its something completely new and I rarely have to teach myself how to do something from the ground up. All the work from recording videos to working with a team on a presentation is all in such a different style from traditional college work, that this summer has definitely been more challenging.

Furthermore, mentally challenging is only half the game here. The physical challenge of waking up at 7 in the morning far out ways anything at college, where my normally class starts at 11, and even that isn’t always motivation enough to get out of bed… There is just a completely different mindset from taking 2 hours of class a day to going to an 8 hour workday 5 days a week that has been a difficult adjustment.

All in all though, this summer has certainly been a worthwhile challenge to undertake. I am going to have to join the “real world” soon enough, so getting this first experience under my belt should go a long way.

Week Seven

Only one month until school begins again… What do you find more challenging,a  full-time class load at Northwestern or full-time job at Fairway?  Why?