Trials and Tribulations of an Intern

Can I just take a moment to say that the real world sucks?

I got an internship/job this summer at my local hometown paper. I figured it would include shadowing one of the reporters, doing some typing in the office, and writing the occasional 'teeny-tiny, last page, this-is-only-going-to-matter-to-the-people-that-are-actually-in-it' story.

Yet, here I am, fifteen minutes from heading to a Borough council meeting from a town I'm unfamiliar with. I have no idea what the issues are or what is going to be discussed. I'm slightly confused on how to get there. Also, I have to take pictures.


Did I mention I've only been at this for a week and two days? Did I mention that I didn't even have a desk or any place to sit for that matter till this Monday? Did I mention I didn't have a parking pass until this morning and that I won't even have a press badge or a key to the building until Friday? Did I mention that this is already going to be my second story and, while the writing on the first one was pretty good (not to toot my own horn), the interviewing and people skills process left much to be desired. Plus, there wasn't such a time crunch.

This Borough meeting story has to be done and submitted by 11 pm tonight. That shouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that the meeting doesn't start until 7, they're having a children's ceremony before the actual meeting starts, and I've been told these meetings can last upwards of two or three hours. At the most we're talking 10 pm end time, a half-hour commute back home, leaving only a half an hour to write and submit my story. I'm praying with everything I have that this wraps up by 8 p.m., 9 at the latest.

Luckily, I found out today that I can write it at home and send it in instead of having to go back to the office to write it. That's going to save me all of about ten seconds because the office and home are about the same distance from the Borough building, but at least in can write it in my PJs and I don't have to drive from the Borough building to the office and then the office to home.

Did I forget to mention that its supposed to storm tonight too, and I hate thunderstorms. They're predicting ridiculous winds, torrential downpours, and a personal favorite, giant hail. -_-
Like I wasn't nervous enough to begin with, so lets just keep piling it on.

I have no idea how this is going to go. I guess the upside will be that if I really screw it up, they won't ask me to do this again, right?

Sometimes I need to not be so high strung and to chill out. I'm just an intern. I'm doing them a favor. If I wasn't here there would be no one to cover the meeting because the usual Borough meeting coverage guy was double booked.

Deep breath, and here I go.