My 22-weeks stint at Her World magazine has come to an end and I have officially graduated from being #internSmi, a hashtag I came up with to remember every moment as an intern. I remember receiving word of my acceptance and I just couldn't believe it. In fact, right after I went for the interview, I told my mom I probably failed because the English test was mind-blowing and the interviewer didn't seem very impressed with me. So it took a while for the good news to sink in. My first day at Her World was mostly protocol: I met the HR officer and she brought me up to level 7, where Her World was. She handed me over to the media coordinator who led me to my seat and introduced me to my supervisor, who in turn introduced me to the team and the other interns. The IT guy came to set up my account and I was left on my own thereafter. My editor wasn't in the day I came in so I didn't get to know her until much later. I spent the first two weeks assisting the fashion t...

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 s...

The month of March is always  my favourite month just because we (my siblings and I) grow a year older all together. I've said this many times before but I'll say it again anyway: Life truly began when I turned 21. The last one year has gone by way faster than I expected but I'm thankful for each and every day. I have lived without regrets since turning 21 and I intend to continuing living every day that way. Honestly, I can't really feel any difference even days after I celebrated my 22nd birthday. I think that solidifies my belief that age is just  a number. Or maybe life hasn't really changed very much recently. Nonetheless! I still am looking forward to an amazing 2015. I was on the phone with M yesterday and we were discussing the details of our summer exchange application. I could feel the excitement growing in my voice (but of course!). It is very rare that the mountain tortoise Smi is stepping out of her cave, into a whole new world beyond my imagina...

These days have been so, so tough and I'm not even kidding. The last one week has been so stressful I was this  close to breaking down. Six weeks into internship and it's evident that everyone wants a piece of me but no one actually genuinely cares about my well-being. But in the end, I am but an intern so it's probably understandable why I'm somewhat responsible for lessening the burdens of the other editors. And then there are times when I feel like I'm not part of this family simply because I'm not providing for myself. I'm turning 22 this year but I still feel like 2 to my family. I can't even decide what I want to wear for Chinese New Year because what I want to wear is 1) too inauspicious according to my mom and so 2) my mom doesn't like it. I went on a journey to find the right top to match my skirt but everything was done in such a haste that I now not only dislike that damned skirt, I also don't intend to wear it anymore. These little th...

This weekend must have been one of the craziest I've had since a long time. Although internship takes up half my day from Mondays to Fridays, I make it a point to never  work overtime and to meet my friends once a week (at least). I don't know about others but I, for one, cannot stand facing the computer 8-9 hours a day. Not only do my eyes get tired, I  get tired too. Oh, and not to mention how stiff my back becomes that no amount of stretching will make that feeling go away. I know I'm most productive in the morning and maybe  2 hours after lunch but to say I'm diligently working throughout that 8 and a half hours is a stretch. Sometimes I just have so much work to do that I'm doing everything at one time but accomplishing nothing. Yet, I continue to feel uselessly stress and even dreamt about work twice (or thrice) last week. I'm just so thankful I'm done with my first snippet and while I still have 2-3 other assignments on hand, everything is g...

"I don't know what else I can do because if I do something right, it's unacknowledged. She doesn't even say thank you. But if I do something wrong, she is vicious. "   - Andy Sachs (The Devil Wears Prada, 2006) Tomorrow marks the start of the third week of my internship and ever since it begun, I feel like I haven't had time to properly update the site. My last post was 5 days ago but it feel like it was 5 months ago. Before internship began, I was honestly excited about working for a women's fashion magazine because it was in line with my interest in both fashion and writing. 2 weeks into this internship and it has been a real eye-opener for me. I feel like Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway's character in The Devil Wears Prada ) recently but not in a bad way of course. In the last 2 weeks, I've been to town countless times doing store returns + loan/sample pick-ups. That's the downside because I strained my entire body lugging around extremely...