Finally, actual proof that the SALT Blog editorial team is asleep at the wheel (er, desk).

It’s Intern Mike’s last official day interning for the SALT Blog (tears). To celebrate—or make him uncomfortable one final time—we had him sit down for his own Internview. 

RYAN

What surprised you the most over the course of your 4 months here?

MIKE

Just seeing what goes behind a blog really shocked me. I used to think it was just someone picks up their laptop, writes a post, and is done. There’s an entire system behind it.

And ASA itself. I had known about it before, but I had no idea it was this huge of an organization.

RYAN

What about from a financial standpoint?

MIKE

I knew I had student loans, but it just never really dawned on me that they were going to be an issue when I graduated. Definitely a huge financial epiphany for me.

RYAN

Did your spending change at all this summer?

MIKE

I’ve definitely become a lot more frugal. Last summer, I spent so much money, it wasn’t even funny. I hardly spent anything this summer.

RYAN

Any examples you’d share?

MIKE

Absolutely. Before, I’d go into Macy’s, see a shirt, and be like, “want it, buy it.” Didn’t even look at the price tag. I never even thought twice about eating out or grabbing a Qdoba burrito—which is really expensive now that I think about it.

RYAN

One thing we had you do was the Mike Meets series. Did any of those tools stick with you?

MIKE

I definitely think Mint.com is going to be huge for me in a few years.

RYAN

But you didn’t even give it your stamp of approval!

MIKE

I know! It’s not really relevant now for me, because there’s so many things involved. But I do think it is an awesome tool that anyone with an actual house, car, and things like that should use.

I think CreditKarma was awesome too, because you could actually see your credit score.

RYAN

What was your favorite thing you worked on this summer?

MIKE

Telling my own story was definitely very cool. It allowed me to see everything that went into my own mentality for choosing to go to Tufts and things like it that. It was kind of always there locked away until I had to put it into words and got to see it.

RYAN

The opposite end of it—what was the most challenging?

MIKE

I had presented before, but doing it in front of people who were actual professionals was kind of a whole different ballgame—and really a whole lot more intimidating. That was a challenge to get through, but I made it.

RYAN

Do you think you learned more here than you expected to?

MIKE

Yeah, I feel like this launched my professional life. I thought I’d do this for 3 months, write a few things, and be off to Oxford. It’s really been something that changed me. Which is incredible.

RYAN

Speaking of learning, what’s the best writing advice you received here?

MIKE

The honest voice that we’re trying to do. It’s very easy to make a story sound incredible if you make something that’s supposed to be real a little bit fictitious. Working here has really shown me what the honest voice can do for writing and how much more that adds to a piece. The real stories really help for the blog.

RYAN

Any parting words?

MIKE

College is probably going to be the best time of your life, but pay attention to the less fun stuff because it adds up. Don’t ignore finances, budgeting, and all that, because when you get to the upperclassmen level, you’ll wish you didn’t.

About Ryan Lane

Ryan Lane is a content manager at American Student Assistance and the editor of the SALT Blog.

View all posts by Ryan Lane →