Tldr; got fired from my internship for having ARFID.
Ykw, what the heck, ill make a "how my lifes going" post. Not sure I made any of those since I finished Highschool and my life took a huge turn for the better. (Kids, anyone who tells you HS is the best time of your life is either lying or deserves your utmost pity).
I'll skip over a lot of bs, but this past school year I started attending night classes twice a week to become a specialist social worker for working with disabled people, specifically because the agency that does in-school support for disabled students at the primary school level in my Bundesland (state) said thats the certification I need to do that job.
I actually originally applied for the day class version of that course which was ridiclious of me and I would've never managed to handle that. But luckily for me, the headmistress tried to reject me outright for my autism and ended up offering me a place in the night school as a compromise... story for another time (and honestly most of y'all have heard me scream about it on discord. If you havent, hmu I'll gladly vent about THAT again as well).
Schools been going great, actually. I'm class rep and despite breaking my ankle around easter and having a bit of a headache on how tf I'd attend my inaccessible school building (lemme tell you, climbing to the 4th floor (5th, for y'all americans, europe counts ground floor as 0) in a walking cast is NOT fun), I managed a straight A report card!.
I have another 4 semesters ahead of me, and i need to do 1.2k hours of internships before the end of my 6th semester. THAT did get impacted by my foot, and I only ended up starting my first internship last week, in sheltered housing for disabled adults.
I was upfront about my own autism, but didn't really admit to the extent of my ARFID until circumstances forced my hand on my shift on monday, and it was revealed how fundamentally I struggle to deal with groceries, on the first shift that my boss was back from her holiday.
The staff had all given me the impression during smaller incidents in my previous 3 shifts (in the end i served a whopping 4 shifts, 27h combined, and idek if they'll be counted!) that this was less than ideal but workable and we'd see that I could learn on the job, push myself and meet the challenge...
... evidently boss lady did not agree. I had yesterday off and she calls me in the middle of the afternoon to tell me they're terminating my internship.
Now, my monday early shift WAS a shitshow in which i took hours to put away groceries, some of which needed refrigeration, and cook (which was mosrly taken over by another staffer in the end. I just quartered the coctail tomatos. Which, btw, i deserve a medal for and should be proof I CAN do this bc tomatos are a gd FEAR FOOD of mine) chicken bruschetta thats meant to take 20min. Btw im vegetarian and have never cooked w meat b4.
BUT a HUGE part of this was an unfamilliar kitchen and really confusing, frequently contradictory instructions. I can absolutely "bundle ingredients together by what goes w what mealplan item for the coming week" if you, yknow... give me the mealplan for the right housing unit, and dont accidentally leave me to fend for myself with the mealplan of the OTHER housing unit that does their OWN groceries that dont really overlap w the ones I have infront of me! This was only noticed what at least FELT like hours later btw
One coworker told me to put the spaghetti in the fridge to keep all the ingredients for a spaghetti-based meal (some of which required refrigeration) together. Twenty minutrs later another coworker is fishing them out like "spaghetti dont need refrigeration?"
LONG STORY SHORT it sucked ASS but i think a lot of it is actually GENUINELY the workplace's fault for not providing clearer instruction. Also like, others in the sector have told me thst for a variety of reasons asking the intern to cook is lowkey just not done.
Other folks I've told think that like, the staff should cook and handle the groceries and then just assign me other tasks to do in the meantime. PARTICULARILY since this sheltered housing is run by an org whos whole THING is "we want to let disabled ppl shine/achieve greatness by supporting them where they are weak and encouraging them to pursue areas where they're already really skilled".
Pretty much everyone ive told about this is really pissed at them on my behalf.
I told my sister they'd called my internship advisor from the school and I was like "I really hope that was VOIP bc she's on tge other side of the atlantic rn" and sis just gets this really wide mischief grin and goes "oh, I hope it was a full price personal phone call :)"
N me? I'm just heartbroken. I loved it there, I really did. I was looking FORWARD to a summer of working there. I left every single shift looking forward to the next one, even my last. I liked my coworkers, I loved my clients, and it just... it just sucks!
Oh, and, My advisor has the hard boundary of not working at all outside of term so i cant start another internship till school starts back in mid september. So thats another 2 months im behind w that, casting a pall over my entire summer holiday.
And I think I actually have every right to be fucking pissed at them for firing me over this one incident with no recourse (like alternative tasks etc) but... im deliberately trying not to even start being angy abt it bc that anger would just be unproductive w nowhere to go.
Like this post ig. Idk why i typed all this up.
