By: Peyton Brooks

EAST LEGON, Ghana — Humor me for a moment and relect on your time in high school. Who were you? Were you a band kid? What about sports? Did you ever have to do the dreaded daily doubles? I did. Every day for six weeks, I was training to be the best player high school me could be (which wasn’t great but bear with me). I would wake up, still exhausted from the previous day, throw on anything that resembled an okay outfit, brush my teeth, and walk out the door. Nearly four years later, here I am doing it all over again because this internship feels like a journalism boot camp.

I would be lying if I said that I thought this program was going to be easy before I came on this trip. I knew I would be challenged emotionally, intellectually, and maybe even physically, but what I thought pales in comparison to reality. In the past two weeks, I’ve had to do a lot. I’ve learned the intricacies of an entire economic system and its dependency on the IMF, how the government functions with a president, parliament, and traditional regional governments, the local issues that stay in the news cycle, and so many words that I had no clue what they meant.

Believe me when I say this: this program is a challenge. It’s because of this challenge that I’ve grown to love it so much. It took me a while to come to this moment, but ater two weeks in the newsroom, I think this was the best decision I could have made for my career. I wouldn’t have gotten this education in the States and especially not in Eugene. Coming home from reporting here, I will be able to cover anything that gets thrown my way. I’ve covered human interest stories, economics, politics, environmental and conservation stories, Marburg and Monkeypox, and even a story about terrorist groups within West Africa (that was scary not going to lie).

Not only have I covered so many topics, but I’ve also done it in various mediums. Video, photography, writing, podcast, radio, and broadcast are all mediums that I got to experience firsthand. I spent a large portion of the front end of this trip absolutely dreading coming into Asaase Radio because I struggle in environments that I feel like I don’t have control over, and I regret the way I went about expressing my anxieties. It’s hard enough feeling the constant pressure of Imposter Syndrome, but adding on the “outsider” variable spiked my anxiety so bad that I would come home and pick apart everything that I thought went wrong with the day. I didn’t fully appreciate the opportunity that has been given to me.

My goal for the last week and a half (-ish) of this internship is to make the most of it. I have the most supportive and funny coworkers, no wonder the previous intern had such a good time. I’m tired of complaining because I’m uncomfortable in a new place and I’ve recognized that to be a journalist means to be uncomfortable all the time. Brushing up against deadlines, seeking out stories, talking to people you wouldn’t otherwise, and broadcasting your work will never be comfortable (and if it is, you are an anomaly).

This isn’t like my usual blog posts, I have no eloquent metaphors or emotional elements, just pure gratefulness.