Four months ago, I began my Railyard internship not knowing what to expect, now I wish I could do it all again. Four months ago, I cautiously walked down Princess Ave into a big white building, now it’s my second home. Four months ago, I thought UX was designing apps, now it is being understanding and empathy towards real people. Four months ago, I met three of my coworkers, now they’re the talented, crazy individuals I call friends. It’s from these three individuals that where four months ago I thought I knew a lot, but now have even more of an appetite to learn. Let me explain.
When you’re in the 5th year of university, you’ve most likely taken the majority of your classes and are near graduation. You feel like a senior in comparison to the freshmen coming in September. You feel like you’re experienced and that there is nothing left to learn in school. You feel like the world is ready to see who you are and you have everything to give.
I was the oldest of the interns here, the most experienced with designing slides, the most proficient all dem shortcut keys, I thought I had a lot to give. To my surprise, I still had a lot to learn.
Let me illustrate this with a visual:
In my mind it is like a spectrum (this is by no means factual in any way, it’s just what I perceive it to be in this context). Within the Railyard team, I was on the most far right side of the spectrum of visual design, but even with visual design I had so much to learn from the experienced designers at Dossier. To the left is the business and strategy side, where the rest of the team excelled at, and where I learned the most from. What makes this year’s team so great is that there wasn’t any one person who knew everything, but everyone depended on everyone else for everything.
From Liam, I learned about working hard and playing hard. The thing that amazes me most is how sometimes it feels like to have a million things flying around, yet he would still be on top of it and not have a panic attack. He takes a huge project, breaks it down into chunks, creates deadlines, prints out a handout, and goes over it with everyone. It’s somewhat calming to have someone knowing how all the parts fit and work together to keep everyone on track. At the same time, he keeps everyone lighthearted and has time for outright goofiness. It’s in those times I learned about sangs, being chron, piddling, and how to back tickle. It’s part of what made this internship so memorable - we had fun doing work.
From Hugh, I learned about taking perspective and speaking thoughtfully. During Railyard Rounds and a conflict workshop, he would take a step “outside” of the himself per se, and take an objective view at himself or the situation. I feel like I don’t do this often enough; to stop what I’m doing, pause, to take a step back, get out of my tunnel vision, and to see from a higher position. Another thing is the way he talks or presents. Words are more precise and thought-out, not random fillers or sounds. It’s slower and more meaningful, it makes me want to listen. These attributes are seen in the way he takes time to be away from the blackhole of social media and to be in the present. It’s seen in his journal of insightful observations and considerate solutions, and in the accumulation of wonderfully random thoughts noted down in Google Keep. It inspires me to take a more reflective perspective at times, and funny enough it’s exactly what I am doing this very moment as I write.
From Winnie, I learned about not being afraid to try and giving it the best. For myself, I would always be afraid to say something “dumb”, or afraid to take on a new role because there was always someone “better” at it than me. This is why I always shied away from coding, writing, videography, or whatever that wasn’t visual design because I was afraid of not being the “best” at it. That’s BS. Unlike me, she took on everything right in the face - she wasn’t afraid to try. For someone who has had most of her education in the realm of architecture, she took a part in everything that the team did, from writing content to setting up a WordPress site. Seeing her undying courage to take on whatever it was and always giving it 100% is very inspiring. It pushed me to do things that I was not comfortable with, like leading a sprint, to take more photos, to say ideas without the fear of judgement. Here’s a cheesy quote for y’all, but is totally relevant - “Which is worse? Failing or never trying?” For me it’s the latter.
Besides these three, I’ve also learned so much from the Dossier staff, from the residents at 111 Princess Ave, from Ian, Bonnie and the Mazur bros, and from the experience of doing things I’ve never imagined myself doing.
Four months ago I didn’t think I would be here in the Brainstorm room writing this while immersed in some instrumental goodness, but now here we are. I know I’m going to have massive withdrawals, miss seeing all these faces and coming to this office. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next four months, but based on what happened in these past four, I’m kind of excited.