SUMMER 2015: Where Is She Now?

Happy summer, everybody! May your days be filled with sleeping in, drinking refreshing ice-cold mudslides, and binge-watching your favorite shows. 

Well, it’s really been terrible of me for not posting anything on here lately. What happened to me?

Not surprisingly...college kind of took up a lot of time. I was pretty much busy around the clock, with classes, work, and the maintenance of a semi-existent social life. 

I definitely developed quite a dependence on coffee as the year went on. 

So in other words, I didn’t get lazy with my blog, really. Okay, well maybe I did. 

There were just so many things going on, but that was obviously what made my freshman year so great and so memorable. And of course, I'm going to try and write about all of those experiences. It's in the works.  

I know I basically didn’t update this old thing at all while I was there, so I'm going to try and do better. The key word here is "try". 

I guess I should also explain what I’m doing this summer. I completely lucked out and am interning at a top corporate law firm in Boston called Murphy & King, Professional Corporation. The firm specializes in litigation, bankruptcy law, real estate law, employment law, and more.

This internship is honestly perfect because I’ve always considered law school as a post-undergraduate path. It seems at least like something I would love doing; I need to be in a profession that involves working with people, and reading/writing are things I consider to be my strengths.

Therefore, I’ve really been trying to get a better idea of whether or not law is something I want to pursue…. and what better way to do that than to intern at a top law firm in the city? The firm is on the 21^st floor of 1 Beacon Street, so every window gives you the most incredible view of Boston. 

It felt like I was in the classic law firm that you see in the movies. Extremely business-like, high-scale, and successful. So what in the hell is a rising sophomore in college doing here…

The first time I went into the office, I was able to sit down for an interview with one of the co-founders at the firm, Harry B. Murphy. He’s won multiple awards for his work as a bankruptcy lawyer, and is considered one of the top lawyers/experts in Boston…so I was absolutely terrified to meet him. 

I was wearing a dress, a black blazer, and flats with a set of dangly pearl earrings…and I questioned my outfit decision from the minute I stepped into the lobby to the minute I got back into my mother’s car, trembling. 

He walked us into one of their many conference rooms; and I was immediately floored. 

There were bookshelves lining the walls, stacked neatly with green and blue leather-bound books on every topic of law that you could imagine. The glass windows went all the way from the floor to the ceiling, and gave you an unreal view of the ocean, downtown Boston, the bridge, and so much more. It was insane. “You are in so over your head...” I kept telling myself.

However, our conversation went decently well, as in I didn’t stutter over my words the whole time, or give him some ridiculously terrible answer, and Mr. Murphy was a really pleasant man. He talked about how the firm normally never hires people my age, since we have zero background in law and haven’t taken any law-related classes yet (true, and very true). 

Sometimes, there would be an intern or two just to do very simply, administrative things that really don’t require any thinking…but he suggested that I actually enjoy my summer and use it to have fun or work at a job like waitressing or babysitting or something. I was feeling pretty discouraged and dejected, having to accept the unfortunate truth, but he then invited his Director of Business to come and speak to me about getting an actual position here. This man was very nice and slightly more encouraging, concluding our conversation by saying that he would confer with his Human Resources Director, and would give me a call early next week.

So I went home still not expecting anything to come out of it…I mean, why in God’s name would a top law firm take in an inexperienced college student to help them with anything at all? I wasn’t expecting to get a position, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to get paid.

On Tuesday morning, I was in the city again with my high school friend, Jackie, when I got the call. It was the firm’s Human Resources Manager, and she gave me the breakdown of what my role would be. 

Basically, they were willing to have me come into the firm and help in the bankruptcy branch. I would be helping the associates and partners with whatever they needed; it would mainly be administrative tasks, but I would definitely be able to see what the lawyers do on a daily basis, and get a better understanding of how a law firm works. I would be coming in 3 days a week (because they know I’m in college and still need a semi-restful summer, so they were willing to give me 4-day weekends), from 9 am- 5pm, with an hour-long lunch break.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I got the call. I was scribbling all of her words down in my planner, trying not to jump out of my seat. Jackie and I were at a table outside, enjoying our Dunkin Donuts iced coffees…and a car pulled up right next to us blasting these rap songs.

Not that I don’t adore hip hop/rap music at like, 10 am, but it also sucked because I was probably coming off as some ghetto-ass, inconsiderate little teen who didn’t even feel like turning off her music for the most important phone call of her entire summer. Perfect.

I told her I could start that week, and thus began my kickass internship at Murphy & King. This will be the end of the 3^rd week that I’ve been there now, and I’m so happy to say that I’ve finally mastered the schedule, the commute, everything. 

I struggled hard-core for awhile with so many things…just to give you a rough idea of how far I’ve come, here’s a brief list of my challenges:

·      Waking up at 6:15 am everyday I have to work...the old, high-school Melissa used to be an enthusiastic morning person. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. (Everything changed when college started). 

·      Buying commuter rail tickets the old-fashioned way every time before I realized that (like everything else in this world nowadays), there’s an app for that! Gasp

·      Deciding which stations to use (Back Bay or South Station, Westborough or Southborough) in order to optimize my travel time and seating choices 

·      Using Google Maps to find my way to the firm and getting lost quite a few times

·      Being an idiot and only wearing newly bought flats for the 35 minutes of walking back and forth…and wincing in pain every time I took a step. I have the blisters to prove it.

·      Not knowing whether or not the glass doors at the main entrance of the firm are Push or Pull doors. The very first time I tried opening them, I struggled for at least 10 seconds before Paula, the awesome receptionist that I now adore and really enjoy talking to every day, mimed that I had to push them. This one is still tricky- those glass doors fool me every time for some reason.

·      Trying to buy my lunch everyday…this isn’t really challenging. Just expensive. I just kick it old school and bring my lunch everyday now. 

The biggest challenge: trying to adult...just in general. Flats/heels? Gross, get those away from me. Blazers and purses? Do I have to...? 

However, like I said, I’m beyond thankful for the opportunity. Even though I’m not necessarily carrying out the most glamorous jobs sometimes, I really am happy there and I still feel incredibly lucky.

I get my own desk right across from the lawyers’ beautiful offices.The lawyers at Murphy & King are extremely intimidating, because they’re so good at their job, and super knowledgeable. In fact, I help enter a lot of their timesheets into the computer system that we have, and I would never put that type of information on here specifically, but let me just say..."damn. That hourly rate is...unreal." 

The amounts of money that these lawyers make in a day is absolutely unimaginable for a broke little college student. 

 I only work 3 days a week (living the dream with these 4-day weekends), I get an hour-long lunch break, and it pays really well. Plus, I take the commuter rail into and out of the city everyday, which has also proved to be enjoyable, as long as the train is on time and it isn’t crowded af. 

I normally use the time to listen to music and type out all of these entries for whoever bothers to read it afterwards. I feel really happy avoiding all of the obscene traffic that I would have to deal with if I were driving in a car.