Transitions and Acceptance, by Robyn Liss

Earlier this spring, we had the pleasure of hosting Robyn Liss for a three-week internship prior to her high school graduation. As a woman-owned small business, it was important for us to provide Robyn with an immersive experience to steep her in practical learning during her hybrid internship. Robyn observed virtual and in-person team development sessions, as a digital native we tapped her expertise to design documents, she researched and wrote thought-pieces, and more. We wanted Robyn to look back on her time with us and feel that it shaped and propelled her forward as she embarks on a gap year prior to studying at American University.

Robyn was a breath of fresh air – eager to take in all the opportunities that came her way. We asked Robyn to read a few books during her internship and to reflect on her experience. Check out her thoughts below…

Robyn’s Reflection:

I came to M E Clarke Consulting the last three weeks of my senior year. As you can imagine, I was in the largest transitional phase of my life up until this point. I had just finished my finals and my classes. Prom was around the corner, along with graduation. In less than four months I would be moving out of the house for the first time.  

Prior to starting my work, Meghan had me read a handful of books. One of the books was Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, by William Bridges. Bridges breaks down transitions* into three major steps: the ending, the neutral zone, and the new beginning. At the start of my three weeks, I was in the Ending. I was still feeling some level of grief over a major part of my life ending, most prominently living with my parents. While the grief I was feeling was normal, I was still struggling to come to terms with it.

My internship served as a neutral space between the end of my experience in high school and the beginning of college. For my first week of my internship, I was remote. I was still in New Jersey and at home but I was, however, working for a real company instead of going to school each and every day. This gave me a bit of the empty space that Bridges describes. I was mostly cut off from my old connections at school. I was not going in on a day to day basis and most of my friends were busy at internships of their own. I still had a couple of places where I was still at the ending. I was still coming to the end of living at home. 

For the second week of my internship, I was on site in Cincinnati. I was separated from my parents by a plane ride and was far from my friends. While I was in a new city, I found myself still finding time to be in that empty space. I was working on multiple blog posts when not in sessions. To me, that represented a good sort of empty space…I was always passionate about writing and it is something I find myself doing often. It served as a useful form of reorientation. I was in a new situation, and yet I was doing something so familiar. I was still doing something I loved from school, even though I was no longer in school.

I know that may sound boring, but I did do things in Cincinnati that should be classified as fun. For one of the days during our lunch break, Meghan and I went to the butterfly show at a local conservatory. Most of the butterflies were fully grown. On one table, however, there were butterfly cocoons. Those butterflies were in a similar phase as me. They were in the middle of their transition, not the beginning or the end. It is reassuring to know that the middle is a part of nature and life. It makes it feel more normal.

While I am still in that state of the neutral zone, I do feel ready for the new beginnings that are coming for me. 

*Read more about the difference between change and transition here