(This is me not apologizing for not updating in two months. Take note.)
I’m at home in Woodinville for my last ever three-week winter break. Next term, I’ll embark on what will hopefully be my last term at Oregon State, depending on if I can swing things my way.
Right now, all nestled in at our quiet, Christmas house in Hollywood Hills, my dog is laying beside me groaning and twitching in his sleep and my parents are upstairs snoring so loudly I can hear them half a house away. I’m here, all sleepy and content in my fat, winter-y hibernation state feeling like I should still be in Portland, fast asleep, ready to wake up early to ride the MAX downtown to The Oregonian.
My internship at The O ended last Friday. Because A) my skills at writing long form narrative are seriously underdeveloped, B) it’s very fresh and still a little too emotional and C) I have a hard time accepting that my time there is actually over, I can’t begin to try to give any sort of chronological homage to the 11 weeks I spent there.
It seems rude for me to neglect blogging about that experience, as if I’m avoiding it, but at this point I still feel so close to it that I can’t put it into words. I couldn’t write well about it; I could only gush. It would get out of my control. And gushing is sloppy and flaccid writing, so until I find a way to write tightly and eloquently about my (amazing, unparalleled, paradigm shift) experience at The Oregonian, I’m going to only write sparingly about it. It deserves more time and effort. That chapter deserves organizing; review; careful poring over the notebooks (I kept them all) and thinking back on all the people I met, the hands I shook and the things I learned.
I did learn the importance of writing tight and bright, I’ll say that. I can’t write about my time there in any lengthy sequence, so I’ll say it was simultaneously the happiest and most confusing time of my life. I was the most stressed and the most at ease. I was completely out of my comfort zone but felt like I was right where I belonged. And I left there surprised and thrilled and energized. Like I kind of knew where I was and where I was going, and other people were starting to know it too.
I’ve never been more humbled than by the e-mails, letters and stops by my desk on my last day. I feel like right now I’m standing at this very obvious and quickening threshold, and it’s a bit frustrating because I can’t just leap into doing what I want to do — there’s that whole school road block in my way. And people keep telling me it’s not going away.
For now, I’ll do what I have to do. I’ll take my 18 credits, make a solid effort to actually go to all of my classes, pass them and hopefully, Inshallah, graduate in a timely manner. I’ll freelance, wherever possible, and work for minimum wage to survive in the hours between sleep, barn work and school. I’ll buff up my resume and hammer out cover letters, choose and organize the obligatory five clips and dry clean all my interview pants and jackets. I’ll pick up some new pantyhose, some without any runs in them. I’ll try to keep my hair highlighted and my roots at bay in case the opportunity to interview arises. I’ll keep my nails filed and my teeth sharpened. And I’ll stay on top of it. All of it.
(There now, brevity and constraint. Bam.)
Adventures in the News Hole 
Deeply personal post, I really enjoyed it. You have a writing style that makes people that don’t know you (like me) want to pull for you. You should consider writing a series based on your experiences and lessons learned, I know a lot of students and interns would love to learn from you.