Yes, I really did. I survived the first week of my writing internship at The Ad Agency. And the only thing I broke was a cowboy boot.
My brain, of course, is crispy-fried and bulging at the seams. And I still carry a 7 -paged map of the office every time I leave my desk. I’ve walked back to the wrong desk (five times and counting) and noticed only when I couldn’t find my handbag in somebody else’s drawer. I’ve shown up to meetings, certain that I was being hazed (and probably recorded by a secret camera) because no one else was there yet. Let’s see how long the intern will sit in a conference room all by herself. And if we’re really lucky, she’ll face the camera and PICK HER NOSE.
But y’all, it’s been fantastic. Because, well, there’s the most obvious reason - I get to go to work and think of ideas, find stories, craft voices and write. But also, the culture at this agency is pretty damn great. The people take one look at me, my maps and my perpetually startled expression and ask how they can help. When my above-mentioned $30 fake-leather boot came apart at the sole, the girls in the cubicles next to me whipped out the packing tape and helped me tape it back together. And the founder and principal of this very established agency also sits in a cubicle (albeit a very spacious and cool-shaped one) and he didn’t blink an eye - even seemed thrilled - when I spontaneously walked into his office on my first afternoon and introduced myself as the newest little intern.
And then there was the first warm and fuzzy moment: I told someone that, you know, he could just call me Stupid New Girl. And I did NOT get a look of silent horror. Or awkward sympathy. Instead, just like that, I got a brand-new nickname: StoopidLee.
To She of the Cool Hats (the creator behind the original best nickname ever) and everyone else there from Event Management Company X: it’s our people! Hallelujah, it’s OUR PEOPLE.
