They Never Said It Would Be Easy

Fall 2015

Summer came to a close, which meant that it was my senior year of college. One more year of classes and I would be done with school, but more importantly, done with mine and Colin's long distance relationship. I missed him so much, but I was actually getting used to not having him around. We did long distance all of junior year and throughout the summer, so one more year wasn't a huge deal anymore. Plus, I made a lot of friends at school and had other things to focus on, such as water polo, classes, and trying to land an internship. 

After about a month into the fall quarter I started my internship search. I was an English major with a creative writing concentration, so I was looking for something that involved reading or writing. I knew that I would eventually want to become an author, but I needed more experience with my writing to get it out into the world and I figured that the best way to improve my writing is to read more. I decided that interning at a publishing company could help me read other writing while simultaneously discovering what publishers look for when deciding on what books to put on the shelves at a bookstore. 

I sent in an application and resume to multiple different publishing companies in the LA area, hoping to hear back from at least one company. I was so excited about having a potential internship in a field that I loved, so I FaceTimed Colin to give him a little update.

"Guess what!" I said, unable to hold back my excitement.

"Hmm, you got a good grade on your essay from last week?" Colin guessed.

"Haha no. I started applying for internships!"

"That's great! What kind of internship?" Colin responded.

"Well, you know how I eventually want to become an author, I thought it would be a good idea to intern at publishing company. Check out the other future authors and see what publishers are looking for," I explained.

"That is such a great idea, Gigi! I'm proud of you. Keep me updated on how the search goes, okay?"

"I will! How about you? Have you thought about looking for an internship?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. That is part of why I stayed at school over the summer. I started interning for a journalism company. It started in July and is going to extend throughout the school year."

"Wow that is incredible, Colin! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if I would stick with it so I didn't want to tell you and then quit or something like that, but now that I'm really liking it I figured I would say something."

"Tell me about it. What exactly are you doing?" I asked

"I'm not really doing anything crazy. I help the journalists proofread their writing and read their stories. My writing isn't amazing right now, so they are having me go to a few workshops to improve it. Next semester they are going to have me follow a mentor to see a day in the life of a journalist," Colin explained. 

"Colin, this is so great for you. I can't believe how well things are going with your internship. This could really help you become a journalist once you graduate. You should keep me updated with everything that happens. I wish I knew all along." 

It almost felt like he was hiding this from me, even though I knew that it probably wasn't intentional. I wonder why he didn't say anything. If he didn't tell me, who was he telling? My mind was racing, but I needed to put it to a halt before I started overthinking and self-sabotaging. He said he wasn't sure if he would stick with it, so he wanted to be sure before telling me. That made sense. It seemed like he had it all figured out, so now it was my turn to get the ball rolling on my future plans.