During my internship at the Abilene Reporter-News, the news assignments ranged from rodeo events to children reading to dogs. These are my stories.

I applied for internship after internship after internship in December and January. It is unbelievable how early some deadlines are.

After countless hours spent searching online for good internship opportunities, I finally gave up and began packing for the spring semester. Most of my applications were for paid internships, which I realized many others like me probably did also. I had realized too late I would be competing with a large number of people for those few intern openings at ESPN, ABC, CNN and The Cheesecake Factory. I kid you not, The Cheesecake Factory had a journalism internship, which would include working on their magazine publication. It sounded too good to be true: a paid internship in my field AND cheesecake?

I’m glad I didn’t get that one. I wouldn’t have been able to kind of stay in shape.

There was one place I knew I wanted to intern at but wasn’t able to find an application for.

That was a poorly constructed sentence for a journalism major.

I had done some work for the Abilene Reporter-News in the past and wanted to have that opportunity to work in a city I knew somewhat well. I made several calls to the interim editor, hoping to see if they could have me on as an intern.

The spring semester wore on. I hadn’t heard much from them but I wasn’t going to give up.

I’m going to sell these cheesy movie rights.

I heard back from Greg Jaklewizc, the content editor, in April and scheduled an interview. On the day of my last final as I was moving out of my dorm room, I got the call from Greg. I was set up to work as a stringer for six weeks in Abilene later in the summer.

The internship went very well. I received assignments each day, went out and covered events and happenings around Abilene during one of the hottest summers I’ve ever seen.

During one of my last weeks, I was to report on some features from the State 4-H Horse Show, because I obviously fit in very well with cowfolk. Each day I was out at the Expo Center, searching for an interesting feature.

It was a great experience for me to learn not just about reporting and writing, but about the life of newspaper employees. I got a glimpse of what a managing editor has to manage each day, how late the night editor has to work to make sure the paper looks good on people’s front porch, how far photographers have to travel to cover a story. The newspaper is made up of committed people working for one goal, and I truly appreciate the opportunity I had this summer to intern at the Reporter-News.

And no, I still can’t spell Greg’s last name from memory.