First Day of Internship Extravaganza

So,
In case you didn't know today I started my internship with the Nebraska Attorney General's office. Let's just say... GREAT SUCCESS!

At first, I will admit I really wasn't looking forward to this. I got up at 5:30, which believe it or not is early even for me. I showered and was fighting traffic in torential rain and heavy traffic in road construction by 6:30. I rolled into the fair city of Lincoln by 7:40 and had secured safe, and legal parking by 7:45. Unsure that my parking space was legit (The AGO had warned me of "hidden" no parking or 2 hour parking signs), I waited until 7:50 for another car to park by me before I actually headed into the capitol.

It was much emptier and quieter than I had ever remembered, making it's gothic Art Deco architecture somewhat meanacing. I stowed my umbrella, and was soon on my way up to the office...

I had suited up as always, and was prepared for a less than favorable welcome. Afterall it was Monday, it was very early, and it's Mid-Term election time. What I got was sometihng totally different! The office staff was SO friendly, warm and welcoming. Although I didn't meet the Attorney General himself, I met almost all of his support staff including his Chief of Staff and several of his Office Managers. Pretty cool...

After a brief tour of their small office, one of the Office Workers sat me down at what I would soon discover was my desk. No not a desk that I would share with other interns throughout the week, rather it was actually my desk. I had a computer, a direct line (with voicemail!), my own email account and most important a space to actually call my own. It felt so cool!

Throughout the morning I was exposed to lots of general office proceedures, what would and would not be accepted of me, etc. After about an hour of getting settled I was pretty much turned loose and thrown into the thick of it.

As the Attorney General's Media Intern, I worked almost exclusively with his Chief Communication and PR officer. For my first assignment I expected to make photocopies, wash cars, or fill coffee mugs. Boy was I wrong.

The Communication/PR Officer sat me down and gave me an assignment. In case you're unaware, this is National Law Enforcement Officer Appreciation Week. The Nebraska Attorney General loves the police. So guess what I had to do? No, not sign cards for him... I actually wrote a column for him. Wait, I should rephrase that. I wrote AS the attorney general in the column.

"Just you know the basics, 250-300 words. Talk about their sacrifice, long hours, crappy pay... ther are writing samples in the databank if you want to look over." That was it. My instrucitons.

Needless to say I am so glad that I had those writing intensive classes at Concordia. I was pretty much shaking in my boots as I wrote my first couple of drafts and I'll admit they were pretty awful. I was overthinking everything and left out key details... like the fact that this was police officer appreciaton week. But 5 drafts later and I was done! Wow, so cool. So this week if you get a Nebraska paper, look through it and see if his column gets run. Although my final draft might just be a starting point... there's a good chance my actual column will be run!

After that it was time for lunch, I checked the car for parking tickets (found none), and then resumed my work that afternoon. I was tasked with updating a running document on all of the AG's press releases and made some photocopies.

By 4:30 I was out the door... I am so excited to go back tomorrow!

I hope your summer plans are going well. It looks as though at least one half of my summer plans are... let's hope the rest do.