Leadership Interns
A Day in the life of... a Leadership Intern
by Connie Hafner
Michael Buble is here?! Or, at least, I am where he is?! Awesome! And this is my favorite song he is singing. But wait. Why does he keep singing the refrain? The rest of the song is so good too! Oh, now I remember: it’s my alarm, which means its time for me to roll out of bed and start my day. 5:55am is such a daunting hour, and it is so tempting to simply hit the snooze. But I know that if I do not drag myself to the shower right now I will never be finished by the time Natalie needs to use it. Which means Natalie will end up knocking on the bathroom door and asking, “are you almost finished?” while I still have shampoo in my hair. So out I roll.
Natalie and I will walk out the door promptly at 6:45am in order to be on time to 7:00am morning Mass in the St. Thomas chapel. I try as ardently as I possibly can to be all loaded up with my breakfast, lunch, books, and assignments for the day so as not to keep her waiting. Unfortunately though, her patience usually gets tested at that early hour because no matter how hard I try the clock usually reads 6:47am as we hustle down the sidewalk.
Mondays are “load-off” days for me this semester. They get this appealing title because I will not have class until 10:55am, contrary to Wednesdays when I take the 7:05am ACTC shuttle to St. Kate’s in Minneapolis for Anatomy & Physiology Lab. Also, I no longer work the 7:30am-10:15am shift as the receptionist at the Chiropractic office, since it was proving time crunching and overwhelming. So, after breakfast with “the breakfast club” (some other people who went to Mass at 7am) in the Blue Lagoon, I am off to the library for some paper writing or Pathology reading. By the time 10:45am rolls around I am more than ready for class; I’ve learned the diagnosis and prognosis of enough diseases for the morning. English Catholic Writers with Fr. Keating graces my MWF mornings, and I could not ask for a more inspirational class. As soon as class is over I say my good-byes and “see you Wednesday”s, “yes, lunch then,” and I walk with great pace to the Catholic Studies building, Sitzmann, for the 12-1pm adoration hour, consecutively walking in minutes late. When my beautiful hour with the Lord is over I head to the lowest level of Sitzmann to consume lunch and get some last minute Anatomy & Physiology studying in: Mondays are quiz days.
I need to be at St. Catherine’s Minneapolis Healthcare campus by 3:00pm for a nerve-racking two hours of Anatomy & Physiology class. So depending on how I’m feeling (and how much I still need to study) I choose between the 2:00pm and the 2:40pm ACTC shuttle. Surprised I usually take the 2:40pm? You shouldn’t be. The studying will typically even continue on the bus until we reach the campus and I am forced to either take the quiz or fail out of the Sonography Program, which was so difficult for me to get into.
The reading assignment from my class this morning occupies my twenty-minute shuttle ride back to St. Thomas, and then I trek home for dinner where I finally see my other roommates. After dinner and some chatting time there is more homework to be done in the library (because socializing in my house became too tempting any time I tried to do homework there). At 9:00pm I reach the Blue Lagoon, much busier than when I left it after breakfast this morning. The five other leadership members of the Catholic Witness Club (a club dedicated to helping Catholics learn more about their faith and share it with each other and others on campus) are typically already at a table or group of leather couches for our weekly leadership meeting. This meeting has become my favorite part of Monday. We plan, joke, scheme, tease, and dictate duties. Then, it is my task to send out the weekly email to all the Catholic Witness members notifying them of this week’s activities. One of the toughest decisions of the meeting, at least for me, is deciding which colors or color scheme I am going to use for the email . When the meeting has closed, I head back to the library if a paper is due Tuesday morning. If no paper is due, then its back home for some more reading and then, finally, sweet sleep.
Mondays are what they are: Monday. I do not storm the UST campus and the surrounding area with amazing leadership skills such as many would associate with the term “leader.” Ironically, I do not do that any day of the week, and yet I am a Catholic Studies Leadership Intern. I contribute the talents God has blessed me with as justly as possible, hoping to display leadership through the mundane of my day. St. Therese of Lisieux’s idea of “small things with great love,” is a fantastic guiding motto. It reminds us that, while leadership is displayed clearly in the large things, it can also be recognized with just as much clarity in the small things. And when built upon each other, the small can yield the large, such as my position with the Catholic Witness Club on campus. So Mondays can remain Mondays, and Tuesdays, Tuesdays. Whichever the day, I will continue to do the small things with the belief that they are just as powerful as the large things, if done for God’s greater glory. And I strongly encourage you to do the same.
