[By Malcolm Durfee]
Never had I been this nervous but this excited. I waited for someone to tell me what to do as I was dropped off at my first internship. I was dropped off at 9:30 a.m. and breathlessly anticipated what would come next as I sat in the DailyGuides’s waiting room. My elation to work for a newspaper company like the DailyGuide started fading as I worried about whether I would genuinely have an internship there. As the clock struck 11 a.m. and there was still nothing new, I knew I had to get out.
I asked Senyo and Leslie what I should do, and they offered the perfect advice of just going out to lunch. I forget how a simple reset of walking somewhere to get food can be one of the most freeing things ever. Once I got back, I met with one of the editors, Ms. Okertchiri. She was the one who showed me the ropes and helped me adjust to this internship.
I later found that they did not expect me because a clerical error made them think I was arriving on January 15th. However, they were still willing to accept me and let me work with them.
I had to check with the security guard whenever I wanted to go to the bathroom to ensure the water was running. It was kind of awkward as a grown man to tell another person you are going to the bathroom, but I stopped thinking about it because the security guard made it feel normal.
Additionally, the many stylistic differences between the news in Ghana and the news in the United States surprised me. They primarily use British spellings of words, so I must remember to add an ‘u” to words like “honor”, making it “honour” in the newspaper.
These were easy differences to get used to, and getting into the rhythm of working made me feel accomplished; albeit, proofreading wasn’t the most thrilling work. However, it was still shooting me closer to my goal of being a journalist. My mind has been set on being a journalist since I chose it as my major.
I started to pursue this career at the end of my freshman year. I wanted to uncover unseen truths or shed light on groups that were either overlooked by the masses or stereotyped by pop culture. Therefore, having the opportunity to practice journalism in a different country that unfortunately the West stereotypes and looks down on in many cases was appealing to me.
Finally, by the end of the week, the editor said I could write an article about my experience in Ghana, and writing this article felt like writing one of these blogs. It was hard to write an article without much direction besides what the editor said, “write about your experience.” I had so many things to write about, so I did not know what to focus on.
The first option that came to mind was to write about all the differences between Africa and America and, most importantly, how the Western Hemisphere wrongly pigeonholes their idea of Africa. As I had written about earlier in these blogs, I firmly believe that the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere have a Eurocentric view that clouds their idea of what Africa is like.
When I finally finished it, I sent it to one of the editors, who pointed out that I was not detailed enough and told me to elaborate on the ideas I mentioned in the article. She wanted me to explain the food I was raving about, give more detail about the environment I experienced here, and explain things I referenced in the article, like Adinkra symbols.
Initially, I was embarrassed at how meager my first draft of the article was. Nevertheless, I was reminded that writing is a process, and the best writers still go through many drafts of their work. Once I processed this, I finished writing my article.
Then I came to work the next week and saw that they had printed it! I never expected them to print my article, and I thought they would just put it on their website. Seeing my byline in a newspaper was a very good feeling. I sent a picture of the article to everyone in my family. It was thrilling to have a physical piece of work that I had done, bringing me closer to being a respected journalist.
I am enthusiastic about being an intern at this company and can’t wait to write more articles for them.
