Sunday, June 18, 2023
By:
I am slowly but surely becoming more confident in my abilities as a writer.
The funny thing is, I haven't written anything, not even a first draft (stay tuned for Week 4!). However, I am becoming more confident in the various steps that lead to a final written and published product. Spoiler alert, there is definitely a lot of work you have to put in before you put a single work on the page.
Work Stuff: This week was full of all kinds of new things, all of which were good. I am learning a LOT and am honestly just enjoying asking lots of questions. As I said right above, there are a lot of steps that go into the final written piece, even before you write the actual story. Once the story idea is solidified, you have to research, talk to experts, and interview said experts. I have been doing this with a few pieces this past week. I learned that while I do not need to go down the rabbit hole and do hours and hours of research, I do need to become familiar enough with the topic that I feel I understand the main ideas and can formulate questions to ask experts. Finding experts has honestly been the most challenging aspect of this internship so far. I am not always confident in my choices in who I pick to reach out to, but I learned that as long as I reach out to someone, they can usually direct me to the right person to talk to if I don't get it right. I am now on the third step of my list, which is to interview the experts. Setting up interviews can be tricky as many people are on vacation, can't speak to me within the time frame I need to talk to them, or simply don't respond. However, I had a really great first interview that happened in person this past week. Once the story is published in roughly one month, I will provide some more details (just want to err on the side of caution). I was very nervous but speaking to people in person is so amazing and you can learn about the passion and drive that goes behind their work. I have three interviews I am conducting next week, and then I will be putting together a draft of my first article! It is very exciting, and I will be happy to talk about them more once they are published. To summarize, I did a lot of researching and emailing this week, but was eager to learn more about the process and actually do it myself!
Fun Stuff: My brain cannot comprehend the amount of things you can do in DC. Ohio could never. Anyway, one amazing place that Janessa showed us was The Wharf, which was right up my alley. I love the water, live music, and good food, all of which this wharf had. Also, the sunset was beautiful. We all had a lot of fun playing Jenga and had some very delicious food at Shake Shack (I recommend the triple chocolate brownie smoothie). Next, we all had an amazing opportunity to speak with the SPS Executive Committee at a dinner. It was really nice to talk to so many people of different backgrounds who all ended up at SPS. I loved hearing about how SPS brought us all here in some way. Lastly, we interns had the amazing opportunity to see the NOI-F Orchestra Concert. The musicians were quite extraordinary and the pieces they played were beautiful. "Rhapsody in Blue" has a special place in my heart. I was honored to attend and hope I can see them perform again. Thank you so much to SPS for setting these last two events up for us!
Poll Results: This week's question: What superpower would you pick? Teleportation easily stole first place with 8 votes, flying and knowing all physics (haha) each had 3 votes, and mind reading came in last with 1 vote. Invisibility and night vision had no votes. Not quite a nail-biter but very interesting to see. Tune in next week for another exciting poll!
As always, thank you for reading and I am excited to head into Week 4!
Hannah Means