“I may not have gone where I intended to go”

“…but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

For the past seven months I’ve had the chance to complete my practical training in the International Services of TAMK. During these months I’ve had the honor to be part of wonderful work group, take part of some exciting events, visited some places in Finland I would’ve not even known of, met inspiring people all over the world and done many various tasks, some more challenging and some a little easier. 

I was never supposed to study in TAMK; I would say I ended up here more by accident than purpose and nowadays I refer to TAMK as “we” e.g. We have about 300 exchange students every year. If someone would have told me that two years ago I would have probably laugh myself sick. Sometimes life surprises you but sometimes those surprises aren’t really bad. 

International Week for Non-Teaching Staff

“No regrets” and why would I regret choosing TAMK as my practical training place? Some might think that doing your internship in your own school is lame but I don’t think so.  I’ve gained a lot of valuable experience that I would have not got anywhere else. TAMK actually is a good employee and even though all of my work assignments haven’t actually been most interesting or inspiring ones, I’ve got some priceless experience about people skills and working in an office that I will help me in my future career.

Part of the EILC participants in Särkänniemi

©Ekaterina Georgudis

So what have I done during these past seven months? Everything pretty much covers it all. I’ve had all kinds of various tasks related to teacher-, staff- and students exchanges. It’s really difficult to give any exact list of the different work assignments I’ve had. I’ve been doing some Excel charts and collected e-mail lists but I also welcomed many international guests and arranged different kind of programmes. Some of my tasks have been a bit less interesting and some I enjoyed doing very much. Even though people bring the biggest challenges to every work, they also make your days intriguing. 

Some days I’ve been sure this was the worst decision ever and I have to admit that I thought about quitting totally at least twice. Some days I’ve been impressed that I’ve been lucky enough to get this internship. The best moments have been in June when I had the honor to take part of the International Week for Non-Teaching Staff I met many fascinating people. In August I had chance to help with the arrangements of EILC course and NSS summer school and I got to spend time with our new exchange students. During this internship I got to see and visit places that I would have not even known about (e.g. the reindeer park in Iittala).

I feel really melancholic because these amazing seven months have come to the end.  I wouldn’t go so far that I would call this time for the best time of my life but it hasn’t been too bad either. And because I love quotes, I need to end this writing with a bit modified quote from Tove Jansson: 

"Finally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who has played a role in shaping these seven months into the work of art they have been."

Text: Sanna Hosike