![\"\"](\"https:\/\/musictherapyconnections.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot_20260425-161128_Photos.jpg\")
<\/a>As I am writing my last post as an intern, it\u2019s weird to think that a year ago I was terrified that I would never find an internship. I was worried that I wouldn\u2019t become an MT-BC and that all my years of school and hard work were for nothing. At this point in time last year, I had been finished with my coursework portion of undergrad for four months and sending out internship applications for over twice as long. It\u2019s not an exaggeration to say I was starting to feel doomed. Mindset is everything though.<\/p>\n
I told myself that everyone moves at different rates and that everyone\u2019s journey is different. This became a mantra I repeated to myself even when I didn\u2019t quite believe it.<\/p>\n
The pressure of the imagined timeline<\/h2>\n
Having a different timeline is hard though. My coursework took me five and a half years. I struggled with my health and couldn\u2019t do the 20 credit hours a semester that my peers were doing. I watched them finish their coursework in four years, and although I knew my circumstances were different than theirs, it made me angry and embarrassed that I couldn\u2019t adhere to the same timeline I felt like everyone else was on.<\/p>\n
Even after finishing my coursework, it felt like I just couldn\u2019t live by the same timeline as everyone else. I thought I had secured an internship only for it to fall through. Everything fell through and before I knew it I was back home looking for any job so I could afford rent. I was so sure I wanted to go out of state and that I wouldn\u2019t find an internship in Illinois. I let myself believe that I was the only student to struggle so hard to find an internship. At some point I decided that I was going to get an internship even if I had to go to the other side of the country and it took me a million years. I put all this time and effort into it and it was still my dream so it was going to happen.<\/p>\n
Timing<\/h2>\n
It was good that I was home though. We almost lost my grandpa twice. If I had been out of state I would not have made it back home in time. Sometimes things just fall into place. For me this internship fell into place. I had reached out before while I was still doing coursework and they weren\u2019t taking interns. As sort of a hail-mary I reached out near the end of last summer to see if they were taking any interns and they responded that they were considering it. Obviously it worked out. I thought I would end up here at MTC when I was in undergrad and wildly enough I did when both MTC and myself were in the right time and place.<\/p>\n
It has really made me think about timing and opportunities falling into place. So many times in my life I have wanted something so bad and not gotten it only for the right thing to come along later. Coming back around to mindset, I like to look for the positives in the situation and while I don\u2019t believe everything happens for a reason, I think some things do. I think though it was upsetting that I didn\u2019t get to stick to the timeline I thought I was supposed to be living, it happened the way it needed to. Had I forced myself to do 20 credits a semester I would have never graduated or have taken the class where I met one of the most important people in my life. Had I gotten that first internship, I would have been too far away to have come home when I was needed.<\/p>\n
While thinking bout this a while back during my internship I wrote some ideas of lyrics to a song that I never finished: <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was the ticking of a clock,
But it was really everything clicking into place.
Felt like I was running, running, running.
Trying to catch up.
Trying to prove myself.
Trying to be where I thought I was supposed to be.
Every step was a choice
Was a battle I fought.
I\u2019ve worked so hard.
I\u2019ve earned what I\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
No one\u2019s gonna ask how long the journey took.
How many losses I withstood.
They\u2019ll just see me.
That I\u2019m where I\u2019m meant to be.
Surrounded by love.
That I love me.
And I love who I\u2019m going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Thoughts<\/h2>\n
None of this has been easy. I have worked my hind quarters off for everything and now I am looking at my last week of internship. If you take anything away, I hope that it is the fact that you are not behind and to not give up. Everyone is on their own time and journey. The clock is not running out.<\/p>\n
-GraceAnne<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n