By Kiasia Baggenstos

The first day of my internship was different than any other internship first day I have had. I woke up at 7 AM and waited my turn to use the bathroom to get ready because I was sharing an apartment with 5 other women so it was a waiting game for all of us. We all were dressed in modest clothes, some more formal than others, as we did not know what to expect in our new workplaces.

My peers and I were interning at different internships, though we all shared the same nervousness and excitement. After taking pictures to send to our parents, we boarded our tour bus, and each student was dropped off one at a time, fortunate for me I was the first to be dropped off at my internship.

I was somewhat scared because my internship was the furthest from our apartment, about an hour’s drive to Nima, a rural Muslim community. Once I got off the bus, my professor and a couple of other SOJC staff who were on the trip walked me inside, and there was no one there except for one of the security staff. He informed us that the newsroom crew of reporters does not usually come into the office until about noon.

I said farewell to my professor and waited in the receptionist lobby for about three hours until someone finally came and showed me around the newsroom, where I would be working for the next 5 weeks.

After touring the newsroom, I was filled with excitement to get started on writing my first story as a journalist in Ghana.