The week has finally ended and even though I'll have to get some work done tonight, I cannot be more glad for the long weekend ahead.
The last three weeks have been nothing but hectic.
With the announcement of our inaugural Fit & Fab Awards, Gordon, the other intern, and I had to contact an endless list of clients, asking them if they'd like to be part of the awards and for samples to be sent in.
I took charge of the categories under the health section, while Gordon managed the active lifestyle care and fitness-related categories.
It was crazy.
I must have liaised with 20 people at least and gotten countless of parcels sent in to me in a span of two weeks.
We taste-tested some 18 categories and I finally finished all the testing today! (Cleared a total of six categories in a single day, which happens to be a major achievement because half the time, most of the team is not in the office or they don't want to sample certain categories.)
I will still have to tabulate the results and contact the winning brands for high-res images but I'll do all that tonight and pray everything will come in by Monday (or Tuesday).
The stories for August have also been assigned and I've been given three articles to coordinate, one of which I filed today.
I am hoping to file another one on Monday, since all I have to do is collect quotes from the team, and the last one is due on Friday.
I'm pretty excited at all the stories I'm getting to do! It's strangely therapeutic (but stressful at the same time). Most of these themes I have never touched on so I'm glad I got the opportunity to do so.
Finally, I'm filing away all my Fit & Fab articles.
I took a look at the sked (it's a list of all the stories and the corresponding authors) for this year's Fit & Fab and there are probably about 21 or 22 stories but you'll find that I coordinated eight of them while majority of the remaining stories were contributed by, I'm assuming, a freelancer.
Yes, #internSmi is absolutely amazing.
Some weeks ago, my faculty supervisor also came to visit and we had a good one-hour talk at the canteen. He had spoken to my supervisor and editor before sharing their observations and feedbacks of me with me.
I truly appreciate all the feedback I've gotten and regardless of what others have to say of me right now, I'm quite proud of how far I've come.
Truth be told, I struggled a long time to fit in with a team of about 20 people not only because I'm socially awkward, despite the fact that I'm from comms school, but also because I didn't know how to approach the team after witnessing the clear line drawn between the previous interns and full-timers.
I had expected myself to live a thoroughly miserable five months after the previous interns left but Gordon came in and things just got so much better. Not that I didn't get along with the previous interns but I joined later than the rest and there was just no way I could have penetrated the existing rapport between the other four.
I'm normally a people-person. I like meeting new people and I like talking to new people but with the previous interns, I just didn't fit in somehow. They're all nice people but... I didn't feel like I belonged with them so when Gordon came in, I wasn't expecting things to change very much but it did. And I'm glad because I'm so much happier now.
The recent taste-tests had me approach even the scariest-looking person in the team but all went well! (I later found out he's just extremely shy on first encounter.)
Every one in the team suddenly became so nice and welcoming, the feeling is incredible yet unbelievable at the same time.
I took a good 16 weeks to settle in and sad to say, I'm only left with five weeks of internship but I take that as a good sign because even though it took me a long time to adapt to that environment, I now know I can.
The next five weeks will be spent perfecting my stories for August and Fit & Fab while (hopefully) running errands for the fashion team.
I made new friends the last couple of weeks and I'm so happy!
I entered SPH Magazines as the only intern from NTU/WKWSCI and I thought I'd graduate from #internSmi still sour about having made zero friends but I'm so glad things are different now.
There's Gordon, my fellow Her World intern and friend. We have lunch together almost every day and the things we talk about, it never ends! We do shit together but that's only made us closer.
There's Ainslyn, the intern at Her World Plus, who sits on my right. And then there's Veron, a freelance editor for Simply Her, on my left.
All of them have been incredibly nice to me and I'm just so, so thankful for people like them.
Scheduled to have lunch with Veron next week and I think I'll arrange for dinner with Ains one of these days, before I leave. As for Gordon, we have lunch + long talks almost every day so that makes up for everything else.
In the meantime, allow me to enjoy this long weekend before heading back to another crazy busy week of work starting Monday.
Cheers!
The last three weeks have been nothing but hectic.
With the announcement of our inaugural Fit & Fab Awards, Gordon, the other intern, and I had to contact an endless list of clients, asking them if they'd like to be part of the awards and for samples to be sent in.
I took charge of the categories under the health section, while Gordon managed the active lifestyle care and fitness-related categories.
It was crazy.
I must have liaised with 20 people at least and gotten countless of parcels sent in to me in a span of two weeks.
We taste-tested some 18 categories and I finally finished all the testing today! (Cleared a total of six categories in a single day, which happens to be a major achievement because half the time, most of the team is not in the office or they don't want to sample certain categories.)
I will still have to tabulate the results and contact the winning brands for high-res images but I'll do all that tonight and pray everything will come in by Monday (or Tuesday).
The stories for August have also been assigned and I've been given three articles to coordinate, one of which I filed today.
I am hoping to file another one on Monday, since all I have to do is collect quotes from the team, and the last one is due on Friday.
I'm pretty excited at all the stories I'm getting to do! It's strangely therapeutic (but stressful at the same time). Most of these themes I have never touched on so I'm glad I got the opportunity to do so.
Finally, I'm filing away all my Fit & Fab articles.
I took a look at the sked (it's a list of all the stories and the corresponding authors) for this year's Fit & Fab and there are probably about 21 or 22 stories but you'll find that I coordinated eight of them while majority of the remaining stories were contributed by, I'm assuming, a freelancer.
Yes, #internSmi is absolutely amazing.
Some weeks ago, my faculty supervisor also came to visit and we had a good one-hour talk at the canteen. He had spoken to my supervisor and editor before sharing their observations and feedbacks of me with me.
I truly appreciate all the feedback I've gotten and regardless of what others have to say of me right now, I'm quite proud of how far I've come.
Truth be told, I struggled a long time to fit in with a team of about 20 people not only because I'm socially awkward, despite the fact that I'm from comms school, but also because I didn't know how to approach the team after witnessing the clear line drawn between the previous interns and full-timers.
I had expected myself to live a thoroughly miserable five months after the previous interns left but Gordon came in and things just got so much better. Not that I didn't get along with the previous interns but I joined later than the rest and there was just no way I could have penetrated the existing rapport between the other four.
I'm normally a people-person. I like meeting new people and I like talking to new people but with the previous interns, I just didn't fit in somehow. They're all nice people but... I didn't feel like I belonged with them so when Gordon came in, I wasn't expecting things to change very much but it did. And I'm glad because I'm so much happier now.
The recent taste-tests had me approach even the scariest-looking person in the team but all went well! (I later found out he's just extremely shy on first encounter.)
Every one in the team suddenly became so nice and welcoming, the feeling is incredible yet unbelievable at the same time.
I took a good 16 weeks to settle in and sad to say, I'm only left with five weeks of internship but I take that as a good sign because even though it took me a long time to adapt to that environment, I now know I can.
The next five weeks will be spent perfecting my stories for August and Fit & Fab while (hopefully) running errands for the fashion team.
I made new friends the last couple of weeks and I'm so happy!
I entered SPH Magazines as the only intern from NTU/WKWSCI and I thought I'd graduate from #internSmi still sour about having made zero friends but I'm so glad things are different now.
There's Gordon, my fellow Her World intern and friend. We have lunch together almost every day and the things we talk about, it never ends! We do shit together but that's only made us closer.
There's Ainslyn, the intern at Her World Plus, who sits on my right. And then there's Veron, a freelance editor for Simply Her, on my left.
All of them have been incredibly nice to me and I'm just so, so thankful for people like them.
Scheduled to have lunch with Veron next week and I think I'll arrange for dinner with Ains one of these days, before I leave. As for Gordon, we have lunch + long talks almost every day so that makes up for everything else.
In the meantime, allow me to enjoy this long weekend before heading back to another crazy busy week of work starting Monday.
Cheers!
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