San Diego Writer's Ink

Pre Internship

I am looking forward to the flexibility of my schedule and independence of my internship. My mentor has been a great pillar of organization and planning when it comes to what my schedule looks like and supporting assignments I choose to pursue. I am excited to see the fruition of our brainstorming and planning. I feel like this is an experience I need to understand better what I want in a career and my passions in a professional setting. I am super excited to start tomorrow.

Week One

What type of work do you plan to do? What are your hopes for your project?

I plan on writing a mini anthology for my main project for internship. I want it to display the skills I learn from sitting in on writing groups and classes while revisiting some of my previous works. I will be incorporating skills I'll learn from Writers, Ink graphic designer and marketer too. This will help my Internship because it's a student's work they can use as an example further down the line. For now my main assignment is writting weekly blogs to post to my Internship's website.

Describe the culture at your internship, including how people interact, communicate and work together. Post an image that captures that culture.

I would say the culture of my internship is very much self management and flexible. The first few days of internship I was just given an office place to work on my assignments after being given my deadlines in whatever order I wanted. I wasn't chained to my desk and had the freedom to walk around liberty station for inspiration for my blogs and was in charge of how I chose to use my time. When it came to the days I don't need to go in I decided how I would complete my hours from home and made sure to join the meetings I needed to join. My camera, laptop, and headphones sum up best how I have been communicating and interacting with others lately. I have talked to other employees only over email and zoom meetings in the last week.

Week Two

How do you see your role developing at your internship?

I see my role develope in real time at internship. I feel very much part of the organization in the last two weeks I've been here. I've taken part in classes, communicating with tenants at a meeting, and planning the 20th anniversary. If I had to communicate my role through a job title I would say free lance writer and assistant and I love it. I love being able to be part of something and have a schedule for a week that is brand new each time. I am a homebody with a love of cultural and people who feels very balanced at this place. I can show my love while at home and my curiosity is explored when I'm in person. I feel like a writer even when I'm assisting with events and talking to people because I am living and learning. I feel each person I have meant throughout my internship has impacted me because I take it to heart each interaction that is born out of this opportunity.

How do you see yourself growing or changing over the course of your internship?

I see myself growing over internship mainly with work ethic and self management. I feel like this has always been an area I both succeed in while fail at. When I am expected of turning in work by another person I will get it done with quality and completion. I succeed at this very naturally. However, when it comes to completing work on my terms that make myself fulfilled and satisfied I struggle. I struggle because I am not treating my body, time, and energy with respect. I don't self manage myself in a way that benefits myself in a healthy way. I feel like this will be a big personal goal I will work on over the weeks at internship, the first two weeks highlighted this issue.

Week Three

What are social interactions like in your workplace?

I would say my social interactions are always changing throughout my internship because of how flexible it is. I spent this entire week remote due to the floods and my mentor getting sick but it wasn't a bad transition at all. Being remote is built into my weeks anyway and I love it. Working from my bed, library, table, and in my actual internship space is very comforting for me. I don't feel overwhelmed with social interaction and when it's a job like writing cutting out all the noise is beneficial. However, I feel perfectly balanced out when working with other people, weather it's for hosting an event or workshop meeting people have been a highlight through and through. Being able to collaborate with writers, artists, residents, and people from different walks of life has been so inspirational to me because it motivtes me to work extra hard. I like being in control of when and where I put my time and it's been my biggest lesson so far.

You are probably more than half-way through your project. How is it going?

My project is going smoothly although I am a little worried about my excuestion of my idea. My goal is to have a mini anthology published on a website and put together with the help of Canva and a free website designer (like WordPress maybe) but still feel behind because how I set up the project. I wanted to collect writing pieces over my time with Writers, Ink and I feel like maybe I stalled the designing process a bit. I plan to meet with my mentor to discuss my project soon to see if I can get feedback on some of my pieces and aesthetics for the design. I have a lot of faith my project will turn out completely fine but that pending anxiety of it turning out the way planned always gets to me when it comes to a project but I know it's in my head. I am excited to show how I've grown with as a writer through my anthology piece titled Metamorphosis that will be together soon.

What are you thankful for in your internship experience?

I am really thankful for all the oppurties I got to have by working with Writers, Ink. I know I touched on this earlier but I really do adore seeing people from all different ages come together to write because they love it. I love helping the organization even without my writing skills. Making spreadsheets, slideshows, assisting in celebrations and workshops, I have made it all a learning experience of understanding my community better. I fee lucky learning all I do and exploring San Diego through the lens of a writer. I feel like I really learned what it's like following writing as a passion and has made me realize I am willingly to live my life like this if it was my only calling. But I know it's not the only thing I want to do. I feel like I also have a network of people I can email anytime and they will help me get connected to things I want to do and other people who can help support me. That is something I really wanted to gain from Internship to begin with.

Week Four

What advice would you give to a junior in high school who wants to pursue a career in the field of your internship?

I would tell them to not be afraid to initiate questions and conversations with writers who are older than them. Honestly I would say don't be afraid to do that with anyone in that field. Meeting just one part of San Diego's writing community really showed me they are all just human and regular people too. We all love writing for the same or different reasons but we are never scared to tell anyone why we fell in love with the craft or share world experience we have all learned with each other. I feel like knowing that off the bat takes away a lot of anxieties when entering a new field. Also that taking a break is one of the most important things a writer can do to make sure creative juices are always flowing, Stopping and coming back to work is so important and exploring and learning new things is a must in between because the more you know about the world fiction or not will make your work so much more impactful to an audience.

What is going well with your project? What challenges are you facing?

My project has made huge progress overcoming many challenges this week. I had to compile all my pieces of writing together, make many edits, and maybe started over 5 new pieces of writing this week. Then the next issue was making sure my design wasn't infringding on any copyrighted work with Canva. So I made my design from scratch and used Ai for every image I needed. Finally one of the biggest challenges I dealt with the last few days is finding the best dimensions to use so it doesn't look weird when downloaded as a ebook for people. I really love how my work turned out and I'm really satisfied with how it looks. Now I await final edits to be made by another intern for me.

Mentor Interview & Photo Essay

My Mentor Interview with Kristen sadly had to be pushed back from week three to week four of unexpected challenges. I however; truly enjoyed my time getting to know my mentor a little more and what her journey was like after high school to where she is now. I saw a lot of similarities between us when it came to our natural curiosity of different subjects and wanting to explore the world. These are some of my favorite hightlights.

While we were talking about the challenges of a busy schedule and making time to take breaks, destress, and create balance we discuss how it's really about creating firm boundaries and respecting our own down time. She goes on to explain, " think with my job you have to set really hard boundaries, like you just have to let people know, I mean for a while I'd have instructors that would contact me at 6am and at 11 at night once after one, till it's I'm just not available."

For me this was really helpful because I need this kind of advice. I recently learn I'm the type who doesn't set up this boundary because I love learning and taking on any challenges thrown my way but to my own demise. I need to learn to take a break or I end up overworking myself and I need to be firm in that too.

Another favorite moment of mine from the interview was when I asked Kristen to give advice for new upcoming and aspiring writers. She said;

" Don't be afraid to make contacts in your field, like, you know, just reach out to people if you have questions, or you want to shadow someone, or you want to like have coffee with someone, or everybody is usually very cool, you know, like, everybody's just a person in the world."

I really loved this because my month working withe Writers, Ink really has taught me this. This would also double as my advice too for people interested in working with Writers, Ink. Everyone I have met has been so cool, welcoming, and loving . I couldn't praise this community enough, from board members, artists, and members of Writers, Ink they all make this a community and will take you in. I have met authors and artists I would never imagine being able to meet with incredible abilities and the chillest vibes.

Interview Transcript

First Time In

These are the chairs I first saw when I entered my internship site. I felt immedate comfort by them I knew I was in the right place. Before I found this site I wanted to explore a place that had art in the mix of things. Walking through the hallway I knew I hit jackpot by having a place that interwinded both art and writing..

Last Time Out

This is how the room I'm always in looks after packing up for the day. This is how it looked after the last event I help run over the weekend. I will always feel connected to this room because of what I was able to accomplish here within them. I loved seeing this room come alive every weekend and Friday event.

Surrounded By Art

Walking around all the studios and hallways on First Friday made me so happy. Finally, meeting the artist that decorate this building was surreal. Being reminded they are everyday people with incredible talents was amazing.

Helping the Community

I really enjoyed my weekends at Skyline Library helping out with a program we sponsor, Cultivating Joy. Working with writers in my community library opened my eyes to what oppuritnes there were so close by. I even got a new libaray card!

Where it Starts

Working with Washington Elementary was specaill for my writer's heart to see. I remember falling in love with books and writing the same ages at the 3rd and 5th graders. It felt like a really sweet full circle moment and something I just really appreciate.

Final Week

Describe what you are most thankful for in your internship experience

I am really grateful for all the people I got to met and just all the things I got to experience over the last month. Truly everyone I have met has been such kind, loving, and welcoming souls. It's been such a pleasure helping everyone out and attending readings and parties. Just being embraced by this community has been so wonderful and I adore them so much.

How do you feel about returning back to classes next week?

I do not feel excited. I just will really miss living at my own pace this month and making my own schedule as I go. I feel like I was just getting a lock down on everything so I will miss it all. I do miss my friends, learning new things and being in a school. It feels easy and nostalgic although it's only been a few weeks (plus winter break). I feel like coming back to school will be different because of the different lens of life all of my classmates and I have looked at over this last month.

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