A Month Later…

If you couldn’t tell from the lack of postings to my blog, I’ve been busy here in town. I’ve made some great friends and I’m working at both PAAM and Stop & Shop.

The town has grown on me. The quaint beauty that both tourists and I experienced when first arriving here has worn off and been replaced by the familiarity of home. Commercial Street is now etched into my head from the rotary at the Ptown Inn all the way down to the East End where it meets to form a fork with Bradford. The houses and shops are all the same, but they have been touched-up for the tourist season and the streets are now busy with people, bikes, dogs, and callers promoting the evening’s drag show. (I definitely recommend seeing the show Naked Boys Singing. It’s not drag, but it’s a hysterical show). I run into familiar faces walking downtown but the consistent flow of people makes for great people watching and the occasional run in with a Wheaton alum. Similarly to the Wheaton/Norton community, Provincetown has shown me how small the world is. Yes, the Cape is full of small towns, but Provincetown in the summer is quite the experience because people visit from all over. At the grocery store I’ve cashed out French Canadians, Germans, Brits, Californians, Bostonians, New Yorkers, Mainers, and others from all over the country. What living here has made me increasingly realize is that the professional and personal connections you make really bring all parts of the country and world near. Nothing is really that far away if you can set yourself up to be in the right locations and take advantage of the opportunities given to you.

This is why I am happy to have my internship at PAAM. The museum has hosted a few gallery openings with influential townsfolk and donors, all of which I have got to help out at. I was a walker at the bi-annual art auction, I helped setup and host openings, and I’ve helped out at a cocktail party. Tomorrow I will be helping out with the launch party for the new architectural magazine out of Boston, Esplanade. The people at these events are all part of the same art world in Provincetown, but they come from diverse backgrounds in their non-vacationing lives. Brain surgeons, architects, managers, authors, journalists all contribute to the flocks of people that come to town and that I have an opportunity to interact with. As well as making these contacts, I am beginning to build a portfolio of completed projects from my internship. The work there is fun and definitely something I could see myself being a part of and making a career out of one way or another.

To wrap of this post I’ll have to say that I don’t know what I’m going to do once I get back to Wheaton and the ‘real world’! Living on the Cape is almost like a fantasy world. I’ll just have to apply the knowledge and skills I’ve gained here, out there. Seeing how people make a living in this semi-closed environment will help me recognize the larger connections and interactions that make up the ‘real-world.’ As for right now I’m going to stop thinking that my summer is over—I still have a month left here!

Thanks to Sarah Toscano for taking the picture! Visit her blog! http://sarahloutoscano.tumblr.com/

More pictures to come...