The plate is full

By Bowdeya Tweh
Special to chipsquinn.org

Posted: March 14, 2008

Bowdeya Tweh

I'm hungry for more. More reporting, more opportunities, more feedback from editors, more daily and hourly deadlines.

The Detroit Free Press, a one-hour walk from my house, was my home away from home last summer. My internship was fast-paced and exciting, and rarely was there a time when I wasn't working on a story or picking the brain of a staffer.

I started my first daily-newspaper internship hesitantly because I was afraid of my lack of experience and of making mistakes.

I finished one assignment, then another and another. I pitched an idea and got the story published.

Then I realized that I didn’t have to see myself as an intern. My pay scale was a little different from other reporters’, but I had the responsibility and honor of being a full-fledged journalist. Readers knew nothing of my youth; all they saw under my byline was “Free Press Staff Writer.”

My fear of failure dissolved over time.

I earned the trust of editors. I volunteered on a few of my days off. I came in a few hours earlier than everyone else to generate stories for the paper’s Web site. I promised I would give 100 percent every day. I walked through the office doors each morning knowing that this day would be different from the last, which was exciting.

Editors would dish me stories; I’d clear them off my plate. Reporters would hand me press releases and I cleared those. Then came the stories I was interested in writing, and I wrote those, too.

At one point, I counted 120 single or shared bylines of mine in the paper and on the Web. The number excited me, but I realized that in a few years I wouldn’t remember it.

What I will remember are the awesome people I worked with, the fun assignments I had (such as covering kids jumping into a huge pit of mud) and the compliments from editors as my work improved. I enjoyed being depended on just like everyone else.

As my internship came to an end, it was disappointing to clean my desk. I said, "I would be so much happier if I had just one more week to write that one story."

I told an editor my plate was so full I couldn’t leave just yet. That was a good thing, he said, adding that no matter what job I had, I would never be able to do everything I wanted.

His advice was to make sure the fire in my belly never died. To me, that means always being energetic and passionate and having fun living the life of a journalist.

That is one of the largest lessons I learned.

My advice to reporters going into an internship is to learn as much as possible from as many people as possible. I tried to apply what I learned from staffers and sources on each assignment, and I was motivated to improve with each assignment.

Hustle and the effort you put into something is what can make you shine in the eyes of editors.

They know, as they see you come through the doors, that you're not perfect but that with polishing you can become an asset. Other staffers appreciated that I worked as hard as they did on assignments. It felt awesome to be a part of the team.

I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to work as a professional. I’m looking forward to the opportunities ahead of me.

And deep down, I never want my plate cleared.

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