Since my internship is in my hometown, the overall culture of my experience is very familiar to me. However, I have definitely been exposed to new communities outside of that larger, familiar scope. For example, I am working in the State Attorney’s Office which has about 7 misdemeanor attorneys and a lot of people working as “support staff.”
There seems to be such a strong community between each of the employees. They often get lunch together and are close outside of the office. During the day, everyone takes turns barging into each other’s offices to make jokes or unsolicited but welcomed comments. I think for such a stressful and time consuming job, in-work relationships and a sense of community between employees are essential in order to keep moral up.
Further, I have been exposed to a lot of people struggling with mental illness, drug abuse, and homelessness, which can often coincide. It is a much more somber community, but watching the way people in our county’s specialized court system support each other through their struggles is so inspiring.
A sense of community seems essential when people are healing from and overcoming things like drug addiction, mental illness, and homelessness. This has gone to show me the overall importance of culture and community not only to achieve goals, but also happiness.
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