This is Where the Title Goes

OK. I know it might seem like I'm being a brat about balancing all of the cool things I'm getting to do with all of the mundane tasks that have to get done before I can enjoy the cool stuff, but the reality is that sometimes, a bunch of smaller, simpler tasks can be more fun than one gigantic assignment.

For example, one day last week, I had to schedule and confirm a lunch for our editor in chief, schedule dinner for the news director, mail out about a thousand back issues (that I hand addressed!) to advertisers and friends of various market editors, round up the girls in the fashion closet for an impromptu intern lunch, then help them with returns, call up a few buyers for quotes on a story that one of our editors was working on, and make sure that all of our satellite editors could get on conference calls so that they could participate in our news staff meeting from their offices in Los Angeles, Detroit and Atlanta. At the same time.

All of this was interspersed with coffee runs, distributing mail, organizing various little bits of fashion all over the office and generally making sure I had a spoon stirring every pot on the stove at all times.

The day was great! It went by super fast and I was proud of myself because I accomplished a lot and really helped a lot of people get a lot of things done.

What did I do today? I sat around for eight hours (because there was literally nothing else to do) waiting for ONE person whom I absolutely had to talk to to call me back. When he finally did, he talked to me for five minutes, then got a call on his other line, flashed over and never called me back. As happy as I am to be getting bylines, it's pretty frustrating when you have to deal with people like that.

Look, the fact of the matter is that we're all in this for the long haul. I wouldn't be busting my butt everyday if I didn't want to impress my bosses and try to get a job at some point in the future. I guess I vent here sometimes because I think it's a safe place, a sounding board for all of our complaints and issues. Being an intern is a great opportunity, especially in an economic climate that's making people in our industry think three times before hiring someone. Any intern who complains all the time about the perils of the job that a million other kids would kill for is crazy. But any intern who's afraid to admit that, sometimes, being an intern sucks is even crazier.