How to Turn an Internship into a Lifelong Lesson

I got lucky. Writing for Associated Content reminded me of the bug I caught long ago to become a writer. But there was always that little capitalist demon lurking behind the veneer of my lust to be a brilliant writer. And if I had listened to him, I never would have gotten the chance to be so lucky.

But luck isn't everything. I labored on my assignments - self-directed assignments, mind you - wiping my eyes to a blank screen every morning just to satisfy the bug. To let it grow. And the papers began piling up - pieces that I was sure, upon insistence from the demon, I could sell. So I pitched one, Should Climbers Have to Carry Tracking Devices (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/158688/should_climbers_have_to_carry_tracking.html), to my favorite local alt-weekly, Willamette Week (a Pulitzer prize winning paper).

A few days later, I was invited for an interview to be the next editorial intern. The bug got bigger. And hungrier.

So I wrote my unpaid little heart out, producing a dozen articles during my tenure while juggling my last term as an undergraduate and a part-time job as a writing consultant. Plainly put, it was tough.

The strain of being an unpaid intern while in college began wearing on me, and I dreamed of "professionalism" - of getting a big fat salary for doing something that would pay. Something other than writing for a sandwich. I honestly thought I'd have to let go of my dream. The battle between the bug and the demon was growing stronger.

But I kept at it, heart sinking upon the vision of the "real world" where stock options and good salaries don't exist for creatives. The real money is in selling what people like me bring to life.

The last article I wrote in print changed everything. A Leg Up (http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3332/9115/), about a guy named Tarver who is raising funds for prosthetic limbs, attracted enough attention from the local media that the evening news asked me if they could run the story. Of course, I let them. And I got my paper a nice plug that evening.

It may seem small, in relation to the bigwig mentality we are coaxed into believing is worth striving for - worth giving up your soul for, but to me, it was a milestone. My unpaid efforts were paying off in ways I hadn't imagined. People reached out with phone calls and emails about the impact my story made; Tarver called to tell me he had never received so many positive responses, and his non-profit effort was exploding.

I realized that writers have more power than most to change the world. Even in small ways, but then again, change happens in small steps.

I've garnered more contacts and praise from my free labor than any paid gig I'd ever endured, and it gave me hope that I can find a balance between the lucrative and the lowbrow, between the uncharted dreams in the sky and the treaded path below. And I'm now writing for the love, and selling for the rent.

The point of all this is, if you really believe in your own product, and you exude the confidence to sell it, you will be successful in any endeavor of your choosing. The world needs us, needs the creative vision coupled with the capacity to get it out there.

My advice to any aspiring superstar in anything is to get out there, be unafraid of your own demons, and feed the bug before he gets emaciated, and begins to feed off the sour fruit of selling out. Because you don't have to. Get out there and network, send your work to everyone, ignore the impulse to be afraid of failure or success because you never know who might read it. You never know you might give you a chance to be so lucky.