Farewell Is Not Goodbye

2017-08-24 17:26:50.000 – Nicole Tallman, Summit Intern

 

“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends.” – Richard Bach

This internship has a way of forming bonds between the people you work with. Not only are you working with each other in a professional environment, you also get to form personal bonds with everyone. Every other week we were living with each other and spending the full 24 hours a day side by side. This could very easily be hard to do if you did not enjoy who you were with but that was not the case. When I first showed up to the mountain I was very curious to see who my new roommates/co workers would be, and after spending the entire summer with them I am very happy to have been paired with my shift.

This week is the last week of the summer internship which means that Jill and Sam will saying goodbye to the summit come the end of shift. I am happily extending my time into the fall with the fall internship and will miss my fellow interns very much. This summer has been filled with adventures, laughs, and many entertaining stories all thanks to the friendships that have been built. While I am very excited to continue my stay on the mountain there are many things that will be missed once Jill and Sam leave.

The first being the company. Working on Mount Washington gives you such a unique experience to create bonds with the people you are with. All 3 of us interns have the common thread of graduating with a degree in meteorology and loving every second of it. On my first day it was immediately clear to me that we all loved what we are doing and have a passion for learning about the weather. We all wanted to learn about why Mount Washington has such extreme weather. And that wasn’t enough, we ll wanted to be immersed in that extreme weather. I loved being able to share that with Jill and Sam. We have all developed into better meteorologists because of what we learned together here in this internship. I enjoyed having two other interns with me on the mountain wanting to learn about the weather as much as I did. 

Second is the adventures. I was not a hiker before this internship however, I was an avid lover of the environment. Having Sam around, who is much more skilled in hiking in the white mountains, pushed me and Jill to adventure and experience new things around the summit. We hiked to lakes of the clouds, a lookout on Huntington’s Ravine, and around the summit cone. All of which were a lot of fun and allowed us to get to know each other outside of the weather room. I loved being able to explore with the other interns and will definitely miss having hiking buddies with me once the leaves start to change in the fall.

Lastly, I will miss the friendships. We all have very different and quirky personalities and it didn’t take very long for our personalities to show. Jill comes across quiet and to herself, but is very funny once she gets to know you. Sam had already spent time on the summit with our shift and was comfortable with the bosses and showed his true quirky self right away. With time both Sam and Jill become more and more comfortable with me and with the rest of the shift and we all clicked early on. Every shift there was more and more jokes being told and games being played. I loved spending my summer with this shift full of people who love who they are working with and loves what they do. The positive energy from this shift is felt throughout and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of having Jill and Sam on the summit with me.

The friendships I built during this summer are ones that I will never forget. Although all 3 interns are from different areas of the east coast I am sure that this will not be goodbye. We will all go on to our different paths of meteorology but I know that I will have them as friends through it all. Thank you MWObs for hosting a place where these wonderful friendships were made this summer. Good luck Jill and Sam on all of your future endeavours!

 

Nicole Tallman, Summit Intern