Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Stranger News Internship Recap

November 19, 2009: the day I sat down with Dominic Holden and Garrett McCulloch over coffee and nervously made my case as to why I should be the next news intern for The Stranger.

November 20, 2009: after a few back and forth emails, Dominic sent me this:
This sounds great. Can you start on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.?
I received the good news while I was at work, and I immediately ran around and told all of my coworkers. They were so happy for me; I was in shock. As I would later admit to most of the editorial staff, my first experience with The Stranger was in 2003, sitting around the cafeteria with my newly made college friends, eating dinner, and reading aloud the bizarre personal ads in the back of the paper. Little did I, or anyone else, know that six years later I would be interning and writing for the very same paper. Life certainly has it's interesting moments.

In the beginning, I mostly read through daily police reports. You'd be surprised at the amount of shit that goes on at Nordstrom's. If you've never looked at police reports, or gone for a ride-along, I suggest you do so. You'll be amazed at what goes on "behind the scenes", so to speak. I did some original reporting on an up and coming Queer Youth Space; attended City Hall meetings; spoke with legislators in Olympia; wrote some book reviews; Party Crashed; and even solicited some free Savage Love advice from the man who sat 30 feet away.

In the end, it was well worth my time and effort. Now it's time for bigger and better things...and things that pay.

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