Internship in Review

About four months ago, I stood at a bus stop at 6:45 in the morning, watching my mother drive off. Though I was 22, I felt as if I were 5 years old again on the first day of school. Watching my mom drive off, I thought "How could she just drive off like that? How can she leave me here!" I felt betrayed, and nervous.

It was my first day of my internship, and I was scared to death. Two weeks before I had graduated from BYU, and I was walking into the real world for the first time and I had no idea what to expect.

An hour later I got off the bus in Salt Lake City. The sun was just coming up, and my nerves were running crazy. About two hours later I had gone through all the new employee stuff and was on the way up with the other interns. I was walking in wide-eyed wonder, with a haze over my mind. Everything seemed to not quite make sense. I met the New Era staff, which was short a managing editor. Six hours later I was on the bus to go home and I was exhausted.

After the first week or so, I had gotten into a rhythm. Everything wasn't quite as new and different. About a month into the internship I was given the opportunity to do something I had never done before--I performed an interview with two high school seniors. My supervisor was out for a surgery, making our small staff even smaller. But this was good in a way because it gave me the opportunity to work closer with the other two members of the staff.

Another month goes by and we have a new managing editor and my supervisor is back. I perform another interview, over the phone this time. I learned how hard it is to make a 14-year-old talk. By this time I became more confident in giving my opinions in meetings and realy felt like I was really a valid member of the staff. The entire curriculum department was getting ready for general conference at this point. The coolest thing happened--I got to read all the conference talks before conference. It was awesome! It was also about this time that I realized that the internship was coming to an end soon and that I needed to start thinking about the future.

I applied for an open position at the magazines and an internship at Deseret Book. The magazine job didn't work out, and I just took the test for DB. The last month of my internship was spent finishing up conference stuff, and writing stories. Yesterday was my last day.

When I started this internship, I was scared. I didn't know if I would like it; I never thought I would work for the Church. But everyone talked about what a good experience it would be, and that I would learn a lot. And I knew I needed experience. Turns out that I loved it! Where I thought reading GA talks all day would be boring, I enjoyed it. I learned so much, and felt my testimony grow. I received inspiration. It was amazing.

I also felt that I needed this internship, and that God knew I needed it. Not to give me editing experience, and not necessarily for me to read all of those GA talks, though that was probably part of it. But I needed it to grow stronger. I needed the courage I got from it, and I needed to learn that I can work through things and be okay. It was hard.

I am grateful for the chance to have learned so much.