“What’s In My Bag?” Internship Survival Kit Edition

When I started my internship, I thought I’d only need my laptop, a pen, a notebook and good vibes. Spoiler alert: I was wrong. Fast-forward about eight weeks and I’ve learned there's a lot more to it. Along the way, my mom asked if I was going on a week-long trip. Nope. Just trying to survive a Thursday.

Here’s a peek inside my very real, very necessary Internship Survival Kit, aka what’s actually in my bag every day. From daily essentials to digital lifelines on the laptop, here’s what keeps me busy, locked in and only slightly overwhelmed.

Daily Essentials: Carried Like a Pro

Heroic Hunter Notebook My home base. If it’s not written here, it doesn’t exist and never did, and definitely doesn’t make it to the time sheet. Time tracking, notes, to-dos, day of the week, ideas and yes even tracking how many days I have left in this beautiful office, are all written in this notebook.

Mighty Mouse Ah, the lifesaver, because trackpads weren’t built for real productivity (and definitely not because I dropped my phone on my trackpad in the first week and broke it). Not only does my mouse make me feel like I have my life together, it makes me feel professional and “high tech,” even if I’m running on four hours of sleep.

Always There Owala Water Bottle Hydration is key when your job consists of meetings, multitasking the multitask and memorizing everyone's name by week two. Also, my water bottle is there to support me and gives me something to do with my hands in a Teams meeting while staying refreshed and cool all day. The only downside is eight bathroom breaks a day.

Bite-size Hershey Bar No explanation needed. I get hungry.

Large and in Charge Laptop Obviously the superstar. The main event. Mr. Reliable. The GOAT. This isn’t just a laptop. No, no, no. It’s my entire brain for eight hours. My portable command center where everything happens. Presentation decks get built, weekly recaps are written, emails are answered (sometimes even before 9 a.m. Yes, really). The best part? It’s huge. The kind of screen that turns heads. With this much space, I can see everything at once: tabs, docs, Slack, Apple Music, the occasional ESPN check, anything. Legend has it I once worked on six separate tabs side by side without minimizing a single window. If this laptop goes down, so do I, unfortunately.

Iconic iPad As much as I hyped up the laptop, it dies, and quickly. So the iPad comes in clutch. Not only that, but in the first week, my AirPods stopped working on the laptop. After what gave me quite the scare, I remembered my dusty iPad, hidden away since college, would be a great way to do Teams meetings with my AirPods.

Clutch Charger Collection One for the phone, one for the laptop and one for the iPad. Nothing says "rookie intern" like a dead device during a meeting. Good thing I avoided this all year. To any incoming interns, please put your chargers in different locations so they don’t get tangled right before a meeting!

Bottomless Backpack The real MVP, even over the laptop. The Backpack is like the player on your favorite team who doesn’t get the flowers they deserve, the unsung hero of the internship. After being used since junior year of high school, it somehow carried my whole work life like Santa's present bag and pushed like the little train that could, all the way from the parking garage to the office. 

Always in AirPods Needed: meetings, noise cancelation and music. That’s all.

Crisis-ready Comfortable Shoes When you think about an office job, you might imagine sitting a lot, but I know myself better than anyone. I have to get up and walk around. I need good shoes that will get me through the day without making my feet feel like they’re being choked out. 

Digital Necessities

Trusty To-do List Ah yes, the great Google Docs to-do list. Humble in format, legendary in function. It started as a simple bullet-point list, but over time it’s evolved into a living, breathing beast of a document: color-coded sections, bolded deadlines, future work and a lot of confusing things only I could possibly understand.

Why Google Docs? Because I can access it from literally anywhere, whether I’m on my laptop, phone or iPad. Plus, there’s something deeply satisfying about highlighting a line and slamming the backspace. Gone. Accomplished. I’m amazing.

Monday-to-Friday Mr. Cheddar (Hard Drive) The name that always made me hungry, even right after lunch. The orange block that made annoying noises was always there for me when I needed it. On days without much work, dragging hundreds of files to their new home always made me feel productive and hard-working. Good thing I never tried eating it. 

Peripheral Phone Yup. Used it for music and taking small breaks. Nothing else to it. Glad to see my screen time go down more than three hours daily over the eight weeks. 

Slack Shenanigans I thought I was done with the high school group chats, but they came back to haunt me. I didn’t expect to get notifications at 10 p.m. during the week, but here we are. 

Of course, it wasn’t all bad. It was great for days when my co-workers were OOO (that means out of office for the common man) or when I was too lazy to walk up eight whole stairs.

Mood-matching Music Lana Del Rey and Tory Lanez for eight hours straight. 

Intern Wisdom

Adaptability is Everything Your AirPods could stop working, your computer might die mid-meeting, the project you prepared for could get pushed forward or back. Internships teach you how to pivot quickly. Just keep that in mind.

Time Management is a Real Skill Between meetings, project deadlines and last-minute tasks, you’ll learn to prioritize quickly and balance your ever-changing workload without losing your mind. Whether it's a color-coded Google Doc or timing your lunch perfectly, you’ll find a system that works for you.

Communication Can Make or Break You Seriously, just ask questions! No one expects you to know everything when you show up, but if you leave without learning anything, that’s kind of on you. Asking questions is the fastest way to figure things out and actually get better at what you're doing.  

Being an intern means adapting fast, learning faster and always being just slightly overprepared. But with this kit, I’m ready for anything: last-minute projects, double-booked meetings or a snack emergency.

So, what’s in your survival kit? Tell me I’m not the only one carrying 12 pencils and an extra watch when I forget the other one…