The "thanks but no thanks" from the White House was so long and drawn out that I wasn't upset that I applied in April, was on the waitlist by May/June, and then notified I was still on the waitlist through September, and then not accepted the last days of October.
They said they would place us by mid September at the latest, so in my head I was like, "Obviously I'm not in DC, can you just give me the official notice?"
I didn't pursue other opportunities because I was really hopeful the photo office would take an intern. I actually don't know if they took one but I'd like to think the internship spots were taken by prelaw students who are into politics and the WH had no room for a photo intern. But I don't know.
Anyway, the universe is strange.
Just before the White House emailed me I had decided to apply to grad school. And the applications are stressful. I just feel like I'm underqualified in certain areas - but that's why I'm going back to school - so I'm not sure how it's going to turn out.
So I'm basically dedicating all of my time to these grad school applications or photographing random stuff and doing a job application here or there.
Someone called me back.
I probably shouldn't be this excited to be going through an interview process but after so much radio silence from internship and job leads it was like, and is like, weird that I keep getting passed though to next steps.
The people who I've been emailing and interviewing with are so nice. It's one of those interviews that you get off the phone and you're like, "Wow, that was a good conversation," and not like, "Oh my god, I could hear in their voice they hated my answers."
I said stuff that I probably wouldn't have in other interviews but I don't regret it. I'd rather put it all on the table and know that I told them everything I was concerned about and if those are deal breakers then... I guess it wasn't meant to be.
I'm not going to lie though, I want this internship. The thought of cleaning, packing up and moving to Cleveland in about 10-15 days is a little stressful, but I like it.
So the world was static for a year and then all of a sudden, BOOM. Possibilities.
Fingers crossed.