On most of the Thursdays of my internship at the Museum of Science, we would have workshop days with the other summer youth interns from the Museum. By the time of the first workshop day, I had already worked five days at the Museum, and there had already been three cohort days.
However, I was still nervous going into that first workshop day. I was worried that I wouldn’t click with the other interns from the Museum or that I would be stuck with people I didn’t want to talk to for the whole day. I walked into the Museum just a few minutes before our starting time of 9:00 and immediately saw a circle of interns standing in the lobby.
Luckily, standing in the part of the circle closest to me was the other intern from the Teen JUST-US program working at the Museum. We worked right next to each other and often together, so I felt much more comfortable approaching her and starting a conversation while we waited for the rest of the interns to come. She also introduced me to the people she had already met during the orientation day that I hadn’t been able to attend.
When we went to the room where our workshops were taking place, I followed my friend to an empty table. The table quickly filled up with girls, and we all introduced ourselves. With the help of my friend and a few icebreakers, I was much more confident talking to the other interns, even when our tables were randomized and I met new people.
At lunchtime, I was unsure where to go until my friend invited me to the Cambridgeside Galleria with her and a bunch of other girls. Happy to be invited, I joined them and we set out on the short walk there. It was admittedly awkward to be the only boy among 14 or so girls, and it certainly didn’t help when that was pointed out to the whole group. We talked a lot about where we were from and all of the crazy things that happened at our schools (I couldn’t contribute much to that part except stories my brothers had told me of Somerville High; the small nerdy private school I go to isn’t so filled with drama).
By the time lunch ended, I was very happy that my friend had invited me because it became clear that the alternative option to that was to sit with all the other boys, who were all on their phones and talking about video games that didn’t interest me.
I’m very grateful to my friend for making my internship much more enjoyable in every aspect. At Teen JUST-US, I made many good friends who I’m just as thankful for because they made my summer much more fun. All in all, it’s the people that make Teen JUST-US so good.