Luck was on my side in the middle of May. After spending five months searching and applying for internships in Washington, D.C. I finally got a job as a lifeguard. While it didn't sound exciting or noble it was a foot in the door.

I had decided over winter break that I wanted to spend the summer in D.C., and when I got to school I furiously began my search for an internship. I was limited to paid internships since I would be paying for my summer on my own. This made the search more difficult and the application process was incredibly competitive. After five months of being accepted by organizations that were unwilling to pay me, I began searching for a job.

A week before I was scheduled to leave for D.C. I was called about a lifeguarding job.

Housing was my next concern. I had been looking for an apartment and finally found a furnished apartment for an incredibly reasonable amount of money. However I could not get a picture of the building or an accurate description of how safe the area was (police reports were vague and hard to read). The student I would be subletting from assured me that the area was safe, and she seemed to trust me, a person she had never met, enough to leave all of her things in the apartment.

I set out for Washington D.C. thinking everything was rosy. I had the opportunity to carry out my dreams and was able to do it at a reasonable cost. An hour later I had pink eye. That was only the beginning. Thirteen hours later I arrived at the apartment building in Maryland and couldn't get out of the car. The student I would be subleasing from had exaggerated the safety of the area. It was a poor and dilapidated area that was featured on the news that evening for a shooting that occurred down the street. After two bad experiences I decided that my luck couldn't get worse. I was wrong.

Since I was starting work in two days I thought I should check out the place I was working. I knew it was a housing complex. When I arrived at the building, it looked respectable, but it wasn't a country club. I went inside and asked to see the pool. After looking at the pool on the roof I saw that I would be incredibly alone. I knew I was scheduled to work until 10 p.m. so safety was a big concern. It didn't seem like a well-supervised and protected area, so I decided to look for another job.

My first day in D.C. had not gone well. Most people would have gone home. I was stubborn. I stayed in a hotel for a week and looked for and eventually found an apartment that was safe. The next week I looked for a job. I became a waitress and then called my representative and asked to work two days a week. So two weeks later I was settled and had turned a bad situation into a good one.

The moral is that through persistence I was able to have a great time in D.C. Moreover, in addition to what I learned as an intern, I also learned a lot about independence.

• Growing up