Day One: Story Graphics and Pei Wei

It wasn’t until 7:20 am that I realized that I overslept on the first day of interning. My aunt and uncle warned me of the heavy traffic heading into Orlando, so i was in a desperate panic when I realized I couldn’t get fully ready the leisurely rate I would have hoped. Nonetheless, I showered, moussed the curls, and proceeded out the door within 40 mins. I was fully ready to accept the fact I would be late due to heavy traffic, but to my surprise the “hour commute” was only a 25 minute one. So I was or couldve been 30 mins to the first day, I really wasn’t that eager. I gathered that Orange Ave would be an interesting one to get acquainted with and explored. I ended up at an Einsteins Bagel shop and had time to enjoy a Dutch apple bagel. I finally did make it to the green building situated between train tracks and a quaint park.

Arriving at 9am-ish is an odd concept. I have classes that meet at that time, but never did I realize that real life starts at 9. I met many smiling faces and felt a little bad that my handshake was not strong. It was very great to be welcomed by a design dept. staff meeting. Alastair, the creative director, informed us that they are going to do their best to educate us will all that could be learned in these next 8 weeks. Hopefully I will learn more about concept and realize that the books I purchased will be very helpful.

You can look around the office at any given point and find people busy puttering away at work/projects. The greatest part of my day is the amount of music I am allowed to listen to and the massive amounts of photoshopping graphics I am designated to do. It was my duty today to try my best at story graphics for the website. Lets just say at the rate I pump out story graphics, Relevant might have to rethink bringing this novice into the department. Story graphics are those cute little graphic headings to their web stories. The first two story graphs I did with little work, only one came out with the right concept. I was pleased with it. The other two I was having a little bit more trouble on. One graphic gave me about 3 hours of deep sighs and almost tears on my part. My creative directors critiques was everything I knew I was having problems with. Its not like school, where you can settle for below par stuff. Needless to say I was relieved when I finally worked through it and found what really would work.

Lunch with the fellow interns was really nice. We went Pei Weis, which is the fast food version of PF Changs. I enjoyed the lunch just as much as I enjoyed the company. I will say, these Relevant Interns are super sweet. The day is almost done. Like, 6 pm is leaving time. Hopefully I will get another project and do better than before, timewise!

From the Hills of Lake Mary

I probably shouldn’t have, but I did anyways… Prior to my departure for the looming road trip from Missouri to Florida, everyone had a mutual agreement that I should probably stop at one point and sleep during this 1124 mi drive. It sounded like a good idea, but really who were they to tell me what I would be feeling like during this drive. The first leg of the drive, Missouri-Arkansas-Memphis, was my least favorite. It was absolutely beautiful lush green hills of the Ozarks, but seeing it from a one lane pseudo highway (which was just another town road) made it last too long. I finally got really excited when I paid 2.84 per gallon of gas only to see it spike back up to 2.94 within the next 15 minutes. The part of the trek that took me through Memphis, well the ghetto/poverty-like Memphis was another awkward leg of the trip. I didn’t stop like I had wanted to because the people of Tennesse just didn’t look to friendly.

The next leg of this trek Mississippi-Alabama-Atlanta, was a long one. I remember at one point in Miss./Alabama, I was always grateful every couple of miles when there was some form of life. I drove through Atlanta around Midnight. At this point in my adrenaline filled head I was thinking, I can keep going. Its only like what another few hours until the florida state line, I think I can keep driving. Looking at the map and seeing a distance is quite different than actually driving. I believe it was 4:00 am when I realized I had been driving since 1:30pm, and I still was going strong. I crossed Florida’s state line 5:30 am ish and finally stopped for an hour at a rest area to sleep. Got back on route by 7 am, arrived at my new home in Lake Mary Florida at 9:00 am. Lets just say, no one was happy I did the drive in one night, but just happy I was safe and semi sound

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I am extremely excited to say that I do believe I have met almost all the other Relevant Interns that I will be working with. I met up with a group of the ladies to see a movie that I would rather have not spent money on. Knocked up was an ok movie. I think I enjoyed the idea behind the story more than the presentation. I think almost 75% of all vulgarity, profanity, and “bad stuff” couldve been taken out and the movie wouldve been more digestible. It was fun to meet these people. And then tonite I met up with them again at Summit Church in Orlando. It was an excellent message and the atmosphere was way cool. At this time I met Alastair Sterne, the all wonderful Design Director of Relevant Magazine. It was pretty sweet to meet almost all of the Interns again and Alastair. We ended up sitting next to each other at some deli chain shop. We really didn’t have a conversation, because where we were sitting was the split of interns vs. not interns. From the conversation at dinner I can tell the four main things that will most likely come up in any one of the interns conversations:

number one— It is most likely to be mentioned in any form or fashion that this is unpaid. I will make it my goal never to talk about the unpaid-ness of this internship. I am going to try to enjoy this for the mere experience of it all.
number two– I can guarantee something about the intern blog will be stated and discussed and stated again.
Number three– something about the beach or intern hanging out times will be circulating our conversations at any given point.
Number four– There is no doubt that the blatant use of ‘RELE’ in front of, or in conjunction with will be used an obscene amount.

At this time, I am going to bed because tomorrow I will finally see this amazing office that I have been so eager to dive into. I feel a great deal of ease knowing I have met some of the people I will be co-working/interning with. And I know tomorrow we are doing lunch in celebration of my arrival!