Flowers, Cheese and Hagelslag: Last Day

Well today was my last day at the office. And it was an interesting day, I needed to do a presentation about my internship in the afternoon, so in the morning I spent most of the time cleaning my desk, backing up my files, throwing away my sketches and notes (which I DO have scanned), and running over what I was going to say during my 30 minute presentation in my head.

It also caused me to look back at the past 3 months, and the past 3 years. I think it's pretty crazy, how far I've come. I mean, sure, I know that tons of people go to university, and tons of people get "real" jobs or internships. But let me be excited about my life for a second, I think that it's pretty great that I basically stumbled upon my university program (through my desire to be .. different or difficult and go to Dawson, which led to my discovery of their ID program, then the actual industry and then the Carteton BID Program). And I vividly remember, sitting in the information session, having the director boast that students have done internships in NYC, Japan and... Holland. I thought that was sooo cool. And here I am, 3 years (or four perhaps) later and I've just finished my internship here in Venlo. Nbd.

I also think it's awesome that this dose of reality has made me much more excited about going back to school, and eventually getting a job. I'm so happy that, as of now, it looks like what I wanted to do when I was 15 turns out to actually be what I want to do, especially since in this day and age, people change majors.. alot.

Back to my last day of work. To my happy surprise on the way into work I ran into one of my favourite co-workers that was supposed to be on vacation, she was in the office for just 2 days, so I was pleased to get to say good-bye to her, and she got to see my presentation, which was nice, because a lot of people were on vacation. Having finished most of my work on Monday, I took an actual hour lunch, which is a rarity, and my fellow intern told me that he would miss me, because he was the only intern left. It really feels like yesterday (but was 2 months) that there were 4 interns, and we were joking how we would leave one by one, until there was just one left. Well that day has come! Too bad for him, alone at our shared table-island.

After lunch, I tried (in vain!) to reduce my 74 page report to a reasonable file size without reducing the resolution of the pictures and making my drawings look like they had been soaked in water. But they can deal with the massive size and reduce it as they see fit.

I think I am a pretty good bad public speaker. I mean there are tons of people that love giving presentations and want to be politicians or something. But, I get nervous, I hate it, I feel like the world is ending and I never remember what I say because it is such a rush. But, I never die. So today, I didn't die. Because of that I think the presentation went well. And at this rate, with me not dying and all, perhaps I will eventually get over my fear.

But after the presentation it was great. I had made some Canadian Nanimo Bars, which actually didn't really turn out much like Nanimo Bars (but they don't know that, and they still tasted good) and so everyone tried some "Canadian" dessert, and I got to say good-bye, and everyone said how nice I was, and I said how nice it was to work there. I got some nice advice for my trip. My mentor even got me a little going away present, which was super nice:

Nice and compact, Perfect for Travelling

Although, honestly, the "last day" of work isn't the best feeling in the world, it's like, sorta strange. Next time I might pull a Micheal from The Office, and leave a day early to avoid good-bye. Which I actually almost did here, because until Friday I thought that my last day was Wednesday. But if you leave without saying good-bye, you don't get cool Swiss Army Knife Card things.

I also got to leave work early, which was fun. I was going to ask the receptionist if I could keep my badge as a souvenir, but then I offered her a square and totally forgot. I have gotten to know the receptionists a little because everyday I need to get a bicycle key from them. Not today though, I walked home. I thought about taking the bus, but thought, why not walk. So I took a small detour around the back of the Complex and along the Maas.