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Christmas eventually rolled around as family asked on a status update for my internship application. I gave them all the same answer -- still waiting. The great wait.
By then a month had passed since getting the okay to proceed to stage 2 -- host matching. I was told it could take up to 6 weeks, so I remained hopeful that I still had a chance. Some past interns on Quora even said the process could take up to a couple months. But then again, some claimed they heard back in as little as 2 weeks. I figured I'd stay in the waiting pool as long as they'd let me. I had already said no to a decently-paid internship with GE that even offered free housing because agreeing would have meant to stop my pursuit of a Google internship for the summer. I hoped I wouldn't regret my decision.
It was January before I knew it. I had reached 6 weeks with no update. Curious, I sent out an email to my recruiter asking about my status. Unchanged, but not to worry as there was still time was the gist of it.
I tried to remain positive but as more weeks progressed into February I had just about lost all hope. It had been 11 weeks with no host matching requests. "Well at least I got this far..."
Shortly after the 11-week mark, sitting in (thankfully) my last gen-ed for my college career, I received an email titled "Project Interview Request". I would have jumped up and sprinted around campus hooting and hollering but class was just about to start.
One week later, two more requests came in. I couldn't be more excited. I did the interviews with all 3 and ended up getting matched with a host at Google NYC. Shortly after, I signed my offer letter, concluding the application process -- I was really going to Google for the summer. Just last summer I was watching The Internship on TV and now I was actually going to experience the real thing for myself (which thankfully, does not include any "mental Hunger Games").