My Internship: No, I'm not an Office Slave

Since the degree that I put myself under mountains of debt and stress to earn no longer guarantees a job right out of school, I am excited to be participating in an internship for the summer. For my last semester at KSU, I am interning for the Georgia Writers Association, a non-profit organization that conducts monthly writing workshops in many genres. Through seminars, meetings, speakers, and a variety of other events, the GWA encourages the growth and proficiency in all aspects of writing. 

As an intern, I will help plan, organize, and provide any assistance for events, and I contribute by writing pieces for the website and organizing the web content. One of my main jobs that I am stoked for, though, will be developing and organizing a book club for the GWA membership.

This week I'm writing a feature piece about the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. The article will appear on the website and in the program for our event this month, the Georgia Author of the Year Awards. So far, I have conducted an interview and researched the author’s bio. I will be honest, I am incredibly nervous about writing and conveying the importance of the author and the award. I'm slightly intimidated. 

I also was fortunate enough to attend a reading and book signing at Foxtale Book Shoppe in Woodstock yesterday. This was a special treat because I was able to bring my mom to meet her favorite author and coincidentally the special guest of the event, Karen White. It was a great experience to listen to an author who expressed the progress she has made in gaining confidence in her writing, not to mention the bonus of seeing my mom meet her. 

For the internship, I am also helping the administrator create programs and prepare other presentations for GAYA. The next couple of weeks before this large event will most likely be a whirlwind of checklists and planning, so bring it on.

It feels great to throw the word "internship" around and equally wonderful to have the opportunity to improve and expand my writing skills as I dapple in the foreign style of article writing. Hopefully, this internship and the responsibilities will open up some doors, or at the very least some windows, in my quest to be employed after the dreaded graduation day.