After my internship good-bye, yesterday my second “professional” farewell this year took place: I had my last day at my side job.

I still remember how I nervously walked into the big building of this big press agency only a few days before my 21st birthday. My tension could not have been worse and I only thought: “You’re one out of many, who are applying for this job.” But then after a really loose job interview with one of my future co-workers, a test translation and three very long days of waiting, I received the phone call: “I have some great news for you…” One week later I was trained and had my first day as a translator for picture captions and press releases.

Shift duties, early or late; sometimes also on weekends. I translated everything, from Formula One to soccer, from royals to politicians from all over the world, from snails on railway tracks to the most beautiful rose of the year. I learned new vocabulary, how to deal with stress and also how to connect phone calls to other people.

It was my first side job, which kind of went into the field, where I can imagine to work later on. That is why this side job was something special to me. Indeed, sometimes I wanted to scream, because it was really just simply too much once in a while – but other, rather quite days leveled that out.

But now the agency is moving to Berlin and I, as many others too, will not be moving along. Yesterday, I again stood in front of this building, but this time more with a smile than with a confused look. It is too bad that the time is over, but I try to see all the positive things of it: I had six months of great work experience, which showed me many new things, where I learned a lot, I had quite some fun and met nice, new people.

Now it is time to work on my next step: Getting an internship in the USA around fall/winter…