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Mentorship May 11, 2017
I could hardly believe my luck, I was a year out of college, with two jobs, neither one in my field of study or even remotely close to what I thought I wanted to do with my life, when the words “editorial intern” brought up actual results on the job board website I had become a frequent flyer on in the 13 months since graduating college. I read the description and my heart leapt into my throat: this could be it! A real job, kind of, at a real publication! Insert all the praise hands emoji’s here. A painstakingly amount of attention to detail spent on the perfect cover letter, an interview that I felt so good about, some real life negotiating and I had my first official offer for a job at a women’s magazine for the summer. My dreams were coming true. I could not believe my luck as I set out on one of the most influential summers of my young but fulfilling life thus far.
It’s been 13 weeks of challenge and memories, 13 weeks of learning and listening as well as doing and failing, editing and trying again. 13 weeks of learning about myself, about this big and scary and beautiful industry, about what all those Pinterest quotes about hustling to make the dream work meant, and what it would take to be a woman who does. I learned so much about myself, about my voice, about my craft; this internship program was rigorous and challenging, but also life giving and fire starting. I could not imagine the challenges or the celebrations that would come with this unique and powerful internship. I learned how to champion myself and the women around me as we set to do something there aren’t a whole ton of instructions on, to create something new, some thing authentic, something that would change the world. So often when I wanted to step forward meekly and quietly, Entity reminded me to step forward in confidence. We can’t do something wrong when there isn’t just one way to do it; you cannot fail or go the wrong way if you are trailblazing. There is sometimes only forward, and moving forward would take courage and grit that Entity pulled out of me. This internship was the kindling that set my career aspirations on fire. I had all the supplies, but catching a real flame was my true challenge. Entity gave me the skills and tools I will need to find success and purpose in the work I want to pursue in my life.
I learned what it means to write on a deadline, how to stay true to my own voice while also producing the kind of content your editors are looking for, how to prioritize writing in a way I never had before, what it means to be a part of team that is working towards a similar goal with different vision, what it means to find balance between expectation and reality, and what kind of “woman who does” I want to be. Entity provided a space for us to grow and develop as writers as well as women and achievers. Not only did this experience push us, it also pulled us along on journey that will shape and change who we are as women of the world. It embraced our individuality, and cultivated a sense of purpose and belonging for us in an industry that can be difficult to break into. It celebrated us, championed us, challenged us, and called us into an experience far more valuable than any dollar amount or college unit measurement. Entity taught me so much about what it means to be a good writer, what it means to find integrity and purpose in the everyday, and how knowing yourself is one of the strongest career moves you can make as a woman.
Learning that your career is going to be creative takes a certain grit and gumption that Entity is instilling in it’s staff. There is no off button, there are no weekends free, because to do the work that lights our souls on fire, is to devote our whole beings to the cause. Watching our editors pour their time, resources, advice, and confidence into both the magazine and us, their staff, has given us a front row seat to what it looks like to be the women who do. Women who work hard, who hone their craft, and who change the world. Not the women who simply say the right things, but the women who make the right things happen. Life is not going to serve you anything on a silver platter and it is because of Entity that I know what kind of women I want to be, what it means to chase after my dreams, and what it looks like to be a women who does.
