Unfortunately, COVID-19 followed me into the second week of my internship. Furthermore, as soon as I started feeling better an approaching hurricane shut down the History Center. These factors led to a decisive week of mainly rest and recuperation. Most importantly, it gave me time to reflect on what is ahead and how I can be prepared for future tasks.
During the start of the week I found myself still battling some lingering symptoms of COVID. Thus, I focused on getting ample rest. This experience taught me the importance in having a work/life balance. During this time, I would still try to do work at the same rate as usual. I quickly found out this was not feasible, and instead just prolonged my illness. Subsequently, I allowed myself to just get simple rest. I made sure to sleep at early into the night, eat healthy, and relax. I believe this contributed to me feeling much better towards the middle of the week. Therefore, once I had begun to feel better I then decided to use my free time to review the notes I had taken during the first week of my internship. I reorganized my notes on oral history as well as the instructions for accessing audio logs. This process allowed me to renew my knowledge. It also inspired me to reach out to my supervisor and ask about any remote work that I could do. Luckily, she was able to organize audio files and logs into a drive where I could work on interviews at home. Therefore, towards the end of the week I was able to get caught up on audio logs for various interviews. This experience allowed for me to get faster with the process and more familiar with it. Through this I also had the opportunity to listen to more interesting interviews as well as notice more differences. The second interview I made a log for was less structured than the first one with the reporter. Due to this, I was forced to be even more detailed about watching for the shift in conversation topics. They did not happen as naturally as the reporter who easily transitioned from story to story. Nonetheless, from this new interview I still gleaned important interview skills.
For the remainder of the week I remained in communication with the History Center about upcoming events. Of the things to look forward to I am excited about observing an interview with a scientist who used to work for NASA. Moreover, I am eager to finally visit the off-site location and learn more about handling certain artifacts. Overall, though this week was less action-packed I still found enjoyment in using the time to rest and reflect on what I had learned. Now I feel more prepared than ever to start again next week!
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