Year of Gratitude - Day 275 - Detroit Red Wings

As an undergraduate, I worked for the student paper for two years and after I left the staff, I wondered what the heck I was going to do with myself. Writing for the paper kept me busy and I had enough energy to write like a machine. One day in October 2002, my creative non-fiction writing professor mentioned there was an internship with the Red Wings available. "Parking, dinner..." and some other things were nonchalantly mentioned. My eyes grew big and my hand shot up. The rest is history.

After submitting writing samples and interviewing, I got the internship that would round out my college experience at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and change my life. After a year, I would be making money as a freelance writer. Real money! I met hockey legends - coaches, players, writers, broadcasters. My first professional interview was a phone interview with Gordie Howe, Mr. Hockey himself. One of my last assignments was a feature on Steve Yzerman's Retirement Night. I would write about Red Wings that I had been a fan of since I was a kindergartner. A few days each summer were spent in Traverse City covering Training Camp. Not only did I get an outlet for my writing, but I gathered friends, stories and a working experience that I will treasure forever. It's a little surreal thinking back on it.

Even though my time with the Wings was extraordinary, the internship and then freelance work afterward taught me two things:

1. If I put my mind to it, I can hustle and pay the bills with my writing.
2. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life writing.

That second item sort of shocked me. When I worked for the Wings, I met writers that are literally hockey historians, full of encyclopedic knowledge on the sport. I was not that and would never be, but I still wanted to be an expert in something one day. Being part of the grind showed me that while I could manage a living doing this, writing would be one of my skills, but not my entire career.

• Related post: 30 Days of Gratitude: Day 26 - Detroit Red Wings

Year of Gratitude - Day 58 - Southfield Public Library

The Southfield Public Library is my favorite public library. I have so many great memories and lifelong friends from this place. As new graduate student, I visited SPL to complete an assignment. My old supervisor, Nancy Beets, handed me a pre-printed set of answers to my assignment's questions. That first encounter was quick, because the library was rocking. It is still rocking, but a little less than before.

As an intern, I learned from the best librarians in one of the busiest libraries in southeast Michigan. Once we limited computer use for nonresidents, we saw a drop in traffic on the floors. People love free computer and internet service. I sharpened my reference skills and picked up some pretty swell reader's advisory knowledge. Weeding the history and philosophy collections was also pretty great.

Internships v. Volunteering

I was talking to a guy taking classes at my Alma Mater. He thought he'd like to get into marketing and wanted an internship. I asked if he visited the internship office and he said he did, but thought that there were some strings attached. I told him it was just like looking for a job, but the difference was that he probably wouldn't get paid. There are internships where you get paid, but they're kind of rare. Heck, if you find one, though - go for it!

It may seem that an internship sounds suspiciously like volunteering, but it's not. The difference is that you're getting school credit, hands on experience in your field and you're only doing it for a short time. If you volunteer, they know they can get you for free and indefinitely. If you do an internship and impress them, the only way they can keep you is to hire you.

Internships are invaluable. They're kind of a pain in the butt to find, but I recommend a couple things:

• The obvious: go to your school's internship office! If your school doesn't have an internship office, go to the nearest university that does.
  
• Ask upperclassmen where they've looked. You might know someone on the inside.
  
• Go to the library, for crying out loud.
• Go to a job fair.
  
• Search CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com and the like
• Figure out where you'd like to work and inquire. Remember, you're probably not going to get paid, so at least enjoy the work.
• Don't limit yourself to internships in your direct area. I could have taken my own advice, but I was blessed by awesome internships. Fact is, sometimes there are amazing opportunities in all kinds of places - from huge metropolises to small towns. Besides, it's for a short time.
  

Internships, Assignments and other school things I won't be involved with...

This has easily been the strangest fall ever. For one, I'm not going back to school. I vaguely remember not going to school for a year after undergrad, but that was spent looking into graduate school. It was nice, but I knew the calm wasn't permanent.

All this lack of going to school has made me think about school more often, ironically enough. This could also be due my just being hired by my alma mater Wayne State University. I sort of always thought of myself as a person who'd be most comfortable in academia. Academia, after all, has been very good to me, especially in the internship departments.

The first internship from the University of Michigan-Dearborn was something I couldn't have imagined: I wrote articles for the Detroit Red Wings. As with a majority of undergraduate internships, this one was unpaid. Yet, money couldn't buy that kind of experience. Even now, almost six years later, I still pinch myself. I am still struck by how awesome it is to write about something that you love.

At the end of my graduate degree, I hopped onto the staff of Southfield Public Library as an intern. I just wrapped up this internship last week. It was amazing. I met lifelong friends there, got the full library experience and beefed up my resume to aid in getting a good job. This was a paid internship, but let's face it: it was still an internship. Again, the payoff was in the experience.

After a few months of hunting for jobs (in Michigan, of all places), I started getting down on myself and my accomplishments. I wondered what the point of being involved in school was. I wondered if these internships were too amateur and weren't helping me. I wondered if I would have to turn to freelance writing. I wondered why the library world didn't have room for me. I waited for a sign as my anxiety mounted. I imagine I was practically unbearable for my colleagues at SPL, but they remained incredibly supportive.

Then my internships did the talking.

Within one week, I had been contacted by the Wings to cover opening night. Then I interviewed and snagged a position at West Bloomfield. Then I interviewed for a position at Wayne, which would become my current endeavor. Then the litigation consulting picked up. Some publishing consulting reared its head. There's even an archival possibility in the midst. It has been quite a ride.

So, although I started getting mopey, looking back I think I did a lot of things right. Perhaps my patience wasn't my strongest point, but the experience gained through internships and assistantships really pulled me through to the Promised Land (read, full time employment). My advice: get involved with school, find an internship and NETWORK. Frankly, nobody cares about your GPA.

Last day as an intern

Yesterday was my last day as an intern at Southfield Public Library. I thought about how strange it is to turn in a two-week notice. My transition to a new job has never been quite like this. Before it's always been "My contract ends on so and such date."

It was not necessarily a sad day. I loved my experience at SPL, but I am really excited to take the next step and shed the intern title. I will actually serve as a substitute librarian there, but I'm going to miss seeing the people on a daily basis. The staff was full of excellent people and everyone from the head guy to the volunteers were critical to running the library like a well-oiled machine. No library is perfect, but SPL is pretty dang awesome. It was a fun ride.

So, I was sitting here trying to figure out what to write about my last day at SPL and found it was nothing too compelling. I had a few little projects floating around, including Ebay research for a class and leaving a pirate message on my boss's voicemail (see International Talk Like a Pirate Day). Some tasks I finished on my own. Others were ongoing and needed to be passed on.

We enjoyed coffee and donuts. We rocked the reference and fiction desks. I skipped lunch, because I chowed on one too many donuts and wanted to shoot the breeze. At about 3:30, I really started feeling the lame duck status sinking in (read: crashing from donut sugar high).

That was it. There were no sappy goodbyes or tears, which was great. I'll take laughing and telling stories over weeping like a dork any day! We all understood that I wasn't leaving the state. I was sticking around as a substitute. Of course, I'm still a patron and I found friends there that I'm pretty sure are going to be lifers.

I think I'll write about how both of my internships changed my life at a different time, but it's safe to say that working at SPL was one of the coolest places to work, ever. Not perfect, but close.