Finishing up the volunteer story today/tomorrow, and I pitched 2 more stories to Betsy for this week. One is going to be a about a brand-new volunteer organization in DE called NODA-No One Dies Alone. The volunteers are on call 24/7 to come to Christiana Care hospitals if a patient is dying and has no family or friends with them. The volunteers basically sit with people as they die. I think it's a heartbreaking but amazing story. I found out about it as I was researching information for the volunteers story, but thought that NODA was too much of a stand-alone story to include it. It's cool when one story leads to another like this. Betsy was very happy with my pitch, which was encouraging.
Tomorrow, all the interns are invited to a dinner at one of the staff member's house. It will be nice to sit with the other interns and talk about our summers. My regret is that we didn't really get to know one another throughout the summer. I talk to one of the interns, Chris, a little bit, but I don't even know who the other interns are. I wish someone had introduced us to one another--besides the very first intern meeting I went to at the beginning of the summer (only 3 of us showed up) I haven't been asked to any other intern meetings. I think one was held while I was out for the week. I wish I hadn't missed it.
Along with the NODA story, I'm doing a piece on Cleaning for a Reason, a group that works with maid services in every state to have the houses of women with cancer cleaned for free. This is close to my heart, as my next door neighbor, who I was very close to, died of breast cancer, and I remember how difficult it was for her to maintain a clean and cozy home for her family while she was going through treatment. I think it will be great to talk to some of the people who have worked with cancer patients.
Betsy originally said I might rotate to another desk at some point in the summer, but I only have 2 weeks left, and Features is like my home now. I would have loved to get an experience at another desk, but I like that I really got comfortable here. Maybe my next internship experience will be with a news or business or even sports (not sure I would be great there, ha) desk.
I was going to stay at the NJ until some point after Summer College is over (Aug. 14), but my family has arranged a week-long vacation right after I'm done SC, and right after that, classes start, so I told Betsy my last day here would be Aug. 13. I hate to cut my internship a little short, but of course I have to roll with the unexpected. Betsy said she would call my mom and dad to yell at them for taking me away. I will have been here for 2 months exactly by the time I leave. It really flew by. I think I'll wind up with 10-15 big Life stories (most of which ran front-page of the section) and a bunch of little clips from 55 hours as well.
I have to say, I'm very proud of myself. I worked really hard all summer, and it wasn't easy between the NJ and Summer College. I learned so much here.
Only a few more posts left on the old blog before I'm outta here!
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