Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Hey kids. How are you?

One thing I've been doing for a few weeks now is interning at a local magazine. It's a green living, hippie-type magazine. Before today, I was not too excited about it, mostly because I wasn't doing much work and I didn't know if that would change. But today, I received some assignments.

I was given three short pieces to research and write. Short means 200-250 words each. The managing editor gave me the general topics and angles for them, and I just had to make some phone calls and write them up. So today I spoke to three different people and I have at least three lined up for tomorrow. All in all, it was a satisfying day.

I realized that I am out of practice when it comes to writing, but I certainly felt grateful that I could fall back on what I learned in the journalism program. While I was making a newspaper each week in Cardiff, I completely hated every second of it. But the skills I learned there--to do as much research as you can before you contact someone, to prepare all of your questions, and to just pick up the phone instead of finding reasons to put it off--were essential today. A year ago, I would have completely panicked upon being given such a task, and today I just did it. For a real publication.

I also learned that when I am researching topics that interest me, journalism isn't so bad. This should not be shocking, but it's important for me to remember. A lot of journalism students want to be newspaper reporters, and they will do anything to go out there (and "there" can be anywhere) and ask questions and dig deeper by thinking of new questions as they go. I am not one of them. The idea of being a junior reporter at a daily newspaper nauseates me. So much running around and approaching strangers. But if the subject in question is something that fits within my somewhat limited areas of interest, I feel pretty damn inspired after I get off the phone during story research.

So I'm sure you're dying to know what I'm writing about, but since the magazine won't be out for another month, I'm not going to give you any juicy details. Let's just put it this way: I spent 35 minutes on the phone with a pig farmer today. How could anyone not feel inspired by that?