Summer Student Scoop: My time at The Eastern Door

Eight weeks have come and gone. With that, I look back on the time I spent as a summer student with The Eastern Door.

Overall, I had a very fun experience, filled with so much support from everyone around the office. It was my second summer job, and it was such a fun experience. I want to thank The Eastern Door for taking a chance and hiring me.

Although the application said only for CEGEP and university students, I still applied because I love writing and I just wanted to see if I liked journalism and its writing rules. I will say I have enjoyed the neutrality. I would like to look into journalism more.

Over the summer, I’ve learned a wide variety of new skills and have grown throughout. When I first started, I was a bit shy to talk to people or ask for interviews. While I’m still nervous about interviews, I’m not as shy anymore.

With my writing, I feel I’ve come a long way. The way to write an article, while different from what I’m used to, was really interesting to do. Taking a stance of neutrality is difficult, especially since I like and am used to opinions. I love writing little stories, but with that I could write anything I want. The constraints of neutrality were fun to figure out.

Writing is something I’m very much interested in pursuing. I love the stories that can be told this way. Working as a journalist was a fun way to step outside of my comfort zone through writing because writing an article is not like writing a piece of fiction. As said earlier, I found it difficult yet fun to write around the constraint of trying to be objective.

On the look back, there isn’t much I would do differently. I’d say maybe just not to procrastinate, or not to be scared to reach out and talk to people. I’ve found those were my faults most of the time.

Sometimes I would see myself just lazing around waiting for something to happen like in school, but there are no bells for something to happen. I had to take the first step, which is something I’m not used to.

While I didn’t always do the most possible for every single article, I tried my best to not just do the bare minimum, and I would say I succeeded. There are a few articles I would like to rewrite or retry, but not many.

As a taste of an adult job, it was really interesting to do. Like I said there were no bells telling me what to do or where to go next, it had to be all my ambition, which is something I’m not totally used to yet, but at some point I hopefully will be.

There was a lot of self-discovery on my end during this job that there won’t always be someone there to keep you on track. You have to use your own determination in order to stay on track.

I would like to work here for next year if I can. I had an enjoyable time. Everyone was fun to talk to but serious about their job. Everyone felt like they wanted to be there. They enjoyed their jobs, which is fun to see as a newcomer.

Thank you to everyone. Thank you to my coworkers for helping me, hearing me talk about myself, or answering any odd questions. Thank you to my family and friends for helping me through this journey. Most of all, thank you to whoever read my articles for all these weeks.

Niawenhkó:wa!