Lead-up to Launch: week one

This week was rather interesting in that it was unceremoniously interrupted by a gigantic snowstorm that swept across the Chicago area. Suburbs and the city alike were buried under nearly two feet of snow. In some ways this was good, in some ways it was simply odd. It was good, of course, because it gave me two snow days away from campus. But, the snow days made it a bit difficult to concentrate on the literary journal.

Luckily, everyone was on campus on Monday for our intern meeting. We exchanged more submissions that had come to our email address. Monday was also the deadline for writing submissions to the journal, so it’s time to begin seriously looking at the submissions and deciding what we’re going to include. Personally, I feel like this is going to be the most difficult part of my internship — actually creating the publication and getting it online on schedule.

Posters & Production Schedules

The busy weeks continue to come! I have the distinct feeling that I won’t be able to actually rest and relax until the summer. For now, it certainly seems that the literary journal is going to be taking up a lot of my time until the launch of the first issue in April. It’s so tempting to want to hurry ahead to that day and just launch the journal already! Yet, it’s also fun to stop and enjoy the moment and realize that we’re putting together a whole new publication for writers to showcase their work. This is one of my biggest struggles — keeping the present in perspective while not worrying too much about the future. For now, though, let’s talk about the past. The past week, to be specific.

Hitting a Brick Wall & Bouncing

I don’t mind admitting when I run into problems, or get stressed out, or feel like I’m at a dead end. Am I embarrassed when those things happen? Of course I am. But saying them out loud and seeking help or advice from others gives me the strength to keep on going when I’ve run out of steam, or a more efficient form of fuel. The truth is that I’m only human, we all are, and sometimes we come to a point in a project where we can’t go any further, where we feel as though we’ve come to the end of our rope. This happens to all of us at some point in any project we’re working on, and there is no shame in admitting it when it does happen.

Not even if it happens when you’re only one week into the project.

Researching and Proposals

Source image from http://robertmdetman.com

Over the past week, I’ve finally gotten down to business on actual work for my internship. I think perhaps I waited too long to read through the contract and agreement that Simone presented me with during our meeting, but somehow I read through it with just enough to get things done before the semester begins.

As I perused through the internship agreement, I found a description of the internship proposal that students need to write. For some reason, I’d thought that because my internship was all ready to go for the semester, I wouldn’t need to write one of those. Luckily, I had the sense to email Simone and she let me know that I did, indeed, need to write up a proposal for her.