JUNE 2023
“Just tap your id card and wait for one of the elevators to open. That one will take you to the 25th floor.”
I followed the receptionist’s instructions and stood awkwardly in front of the elevator doors, steeping inside along with two other nervous visitors. Usually, I would have sat in that uncomfortable silence all the way up the 25 floors, but having been forced into daily social interactions for the past few months, I was uncharacteristically emboldened to break the ice.
“Are you all here for the Blumhouse orientation?”
The other two interns breathed a sigh of relief.
“YES. Hi!”
We were all just as nervous, but suddenly, we were a little group. The elevator doors opened, and we were greeted with a paper sign directing all interns to their orientation group.
The three of us made our way to the conference room, where we met with the rest of the interns. We were quite a big group, much larger than the FX interns last fall. While waiting for our coordinators to arrive, a couple of us stood up to look out the view of from the window.
I couldn’t resist. Looking out from the 25th floor of the NBCU Comcast Building, I stared straight towards the Minion Mayhem ride just across the street. The exact opposite view from just a few months ago.
I made it.
Well, “making it” was a relative term.
This was only a part-time internship. Capped off at 20 hours a week, I would still need to hold on to a part-time job to make rent. Though working with the Minions was no longer an option.
You see, as a new hire, I was still technically under probation, meaning that I couldn’t alter my “open availability” status from when I was hired. And while I was only being scheduled an average of 18 hours a week, management somehow found it impossible to block me off two days a way in order to fit in my internship Blumhouse.
“Sorry, its company policy.”
So I quit. Not a terribly difficult or painful decision, as the start of the middle school “grad bash” had given me a horrifying glimpse into what awaited me if I stayed into the summer season. Though a second job would be much needed soon.
On top of that, we were indeed in the middle of a writer’s strike, with the actor’s strike looming closely behind. I was surprised the internship still went through as planned, though now I found myself in a script development role with no script to develop.
But for that brief moment looking out the window, none of that mattered. I stood there, staring at that giant Minion head peaking out from behind the building, proud of how far I’d come. While uncertain of my future, I was confident that I would never have to go back there again.
I never had to go back there again.
On my first official day of work, I claimed the only empty cubicle desk that was left for us interns. As I pulled out my laptop and notes, I looked at the movie poster that happened to be decorating my side of the wall: Despicable Me.
I laughed. Never going back again.
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