jacheree's blog

I was unfortunately not feeling very well Monday morning so I didn't go in to intern. I would have been practically useless with the raging headache and nausea so I took that day to sleep in. Wednesday I was back and both of my remaining days this week were spent working on the Circle Michigan resource guide for 2009.

Another eventful week. I was once again given more responsibility and I think I'm glad! Serendipity also publishes a yearly travel resource guide for Circle Michigan. Every year they fill the guide with ads and a few features. The first feature is a piece on Michigan as a whole. Then the next five features each focus on a different region of the state. (Upper Peninsula, Northeast, Northwest, etc.) Well... I have been given the task of writing all of the features for the 2009 edition. Yikes! But, I'm very excited about it. I'm taking it as a sign that Matt has faith in my work.

Last week was pretty eventful. Matt gave me some time on Monday to work on my feature article, then gave me a new assignment. There was a feature article for the upcoming issue that needed some reorganizing. It was written in sections according to region and they had decided to rearrange it in sections according to whether it related to performance groups or education groups. So my job was to rearrange the sections and edit where necessary. It was pretty simple after I figured out how to make the sections flow smoothly together.

Monday and Tuesday again consisted of doing states. I was finishing up the updated word counts on Monday. On Tuesday Matt had placed a new folder in the Intern folder on the server and it had the "Passing Through" capsules on states and he just asked me to finish up what I could on those.

Last week again consisted of working on states. I guess the time that I left for Spain and the time that I came back ended up being bad because I left during one issue's states and came back during the next issue's states. No break yet from it!

But alas, either this Wednesday or Thursday I'll get my break from states. It couldn't come at a better time because I am getting incredibly burnt out on writing those. Especially since I've known for awhile that I'm going to be writing a feature article. Knowing that just makes me anxious to get started on it.

All week I worked on states. It's getting fairly tedious, but I'm working on not letting it get to me. I guess that's what I've learned this week. How to work on something that you're not incredibly excited about and to not get bogged down.

Last week was my first week back from Spain, and my first week back at Serendipity. It was nice to get back into the swing of things, but I feel like I was much less productive last week than all of my previous weeks. Perhaps it was jet lag or just the leftover excitement of being in Spain. Either way I need to get back to my usual pace!

The first two days at my site this week consisted of writing more States pieces. Writing them does get slightly tedious, but it ends up being interesting because in my research I find out about some great places! Maybe I'll visit some of them one day. It also ends up being exciting because when I get each one finished I have such a sense of accomplishment. I know that Matt goes in and tweaks them to be perfect so the finished product that gets into the magazine isn't exactly all mine, but he says that he doesn't have to change much because I'm doing really well.

My first week of interning has been exciting. I won't lie, I started out being a little nervous. I was nervous that my supervisor would regret choosing me because he wouldn't like my work. I was nervous that I would have no idea what I was doing. I was nervous that I would be exposed as a fraud! Until I reminded myself that I'm not a fraud. I really am a writer. And above all else, I truly am capable. So I went forward, and convinced myself that I'm a pro. So far it's working out pretty well.