Rewrite

A recent college graduate alone in a new city with no job, no place to live and only an unpaid internship as a reason to be there. Not the ideal situation to be in.

Marina Baham, a close friend who graduated from St. Mary’s College with a bachelors in sports management last Spring, was that college graduate. She interviewed and was hired as a new intern at a skateboard company in San Diego.

Baham grew up in Sacramento and had been attending a college in the Bay Area, so San Diego was far from anyone and anywhere she was familiar.

After Baham graduated, she quit her job at 24 Hour Fitness to go back to her parents house because she had no reason to stay in the Bay Area since school was done. She interviewed with multiple companies, in multiple cities so she understandably wanted to wait and see what internships she got before finding a job.

When she found out which internship she got, she also found out when she had to start; in a week. A week to pack and get from Sacramento to San Diego is a daunting task in itself, but finding a job and a place to live as well is virtually impossible. And it was.

Luckily, Baham had a distant second cousin who lived in San Diego, or who knows what she would have done for housing. But she could not stay in her cousin’s small apartment for too long. So she started the search for not only apartments, but roommates. She told me everyday how she had never met so many weird and sketchy people in a span of two days before.

Meanwhile, she was also searching for a job, but in this job market it was not going well. She interviewed at several 24 Hour Fitness facilities, but had no luck. When Baham finally found an a apartment, and roommates that did not freak her out, she still did not have a paying job and had to dip into her savings. She knew she could only go on without a job for so long, and so long came quicker than she expected. She was then faced with a difficult decision.

Baham was working at the skateboard company as an unpaid intern in the field that she received a degree in, but was not making money, only losing her savings more and more everyday. She had a solution. Her brother lived in Los Angeles, about a two hour drive from San Diego, who she could live with rent free; however, she would have to drive the two hours three times a week to do her internship.

Within days her situation took a complete one eighty. She got a job at a 24 Hour Fitness in Los Angeles, and was living rent free with family. From being jobless, paying rent and having no friends or close family near, to having a job, free rent and living with her brother. Every thing that was bad about San Diego was now resolved by a simple move.

Baham did have to give up the internship; however, she is now saving up her money while she can so she can travel before finding that career job her internship promised. The experience of being alone in a new city with no job or place to stay will definitely prepare her for traveling alone.