This summer:
*Least likely, due to Parental Opinionation: I will go to live and work in London courtesy of these folk for three months. That would be cool.
*Slightly more possible: I will, if hired, work at Cedar Point for the summer. Never actually been there, but I’ve got a friend who grew up going there every summer, worked there last summer, and absolutely loved it. I just applied online, because, hey, why not? They provide employee housing within walking distance, for less than $20/week. I’m down with that.
*Possible: I will get an internship with an independent weekly in Philadelphia, and live at home this summer. I will not get paid, and will take the train into work every day. Likely, the same train as my father.
*Not likely, but I’d like to think it is: I will get a radically cool internship in D.C. this summer, with any number of places I’ve applied to. I will get a housing stipend, which I will pocket, because I will be staying with my super-cool cousin who lives right outside the city and two blocks or so from a Metro station.
*Or, I live at home, grovel at the feet of the manager at a fast-food joint I worked for last summer and over winter break, get that job back, and continue being a wage-slave in a shitty minimum wage job.
I’m thinking about starting a betting pool: How cool or miserable will NinjaChick’s summer be?
I’m afraid I can’t speak to how cool your summer will actually be, but if I may offer my humble opinion, I’d say go for the London thing if at all possible. Your parents may not like it so much, but that’s not the end of the world. Ask yourself: how many times in your life are you going to have a chance like that?
I had a couple of chances to spend a semester abroad when I was in college, and I never did it. If I could do one thing differently, that would be it. They don’t call 'em ‘once in a lifetime opportunities’ for nothing.
As in “America’s Roller Coast”? Oooo…yeah, London would be cool as hell, but if this is the one that pans out, let me know. I try and get to Sandusky every few years. I’m due for a trip out there this summer.
Tell me, would you be working the admission booth? Or perhaps be a ride op for one of the larger coasters? Someone who would let me skip the ques, perhaps?
I think my first preference would be an internship, really. But most summer internships are insanely competetive and hard to get.
If I worked at Cedar Point, my ideal job would be a car driver. I’m not entirely sure who needs driving around there, but I’d get free admission to the park, cheap-ass housing, and my job would be “cruise around in an air conditioned car and be nice to people who you give rides to,” which I can totally deal with. But I did say that I’d be willing to work anywhere in the park, so we’ll see.
I’ve had bad relations with cab drivers ever since I had to fight a drunk cabbie who attempted to mug me in NYC about 15 years ago.
The “destabilizing” comment comes from the experiences of an English professor friend of mine. He takes college kids to London for Spring break all the time and he says he’s averaged "one student a year who stays there because they’ve met the “love of their life.” And then of course end up back in America a half year later with all kinds of problems restructuring their school life.
I’m kind of tiffed at Cedar Point as well since I lost my favorite baseball cap in the whole world there on one of those crazy rides :(.
