It seemed to be the running joke of my summer.
Friends and family would ask me where I was interning
for the next few months, and when I told them AARP The Magazine, the following
slew of responses was pretty popular.
“Oh, for old people?”
“You had a choice where you’d be working, right?”
“For old people?”
“Oh…. (sympathetic look)”
And my favorite was from my father.
“You should tell them that I could be on the cover. It’s 50
and up, right? I’m 52!”
Even before I started my internship, I felt an obligation to
defend myself. Usually my reply that AARP The Magazine is the largest
circulating publication in the world with
35 million subscribers would shut everyone up.
Underneath the defensiveness, though, I had no shortage of
reservations. After spending a week in Manhattan, seeing all of the amazing,
glamorous magazines and the people that run them, I started to doubt my
decision to stay in D.C.
Now, as I close the first week at AARP The Magazine, I (cue
cliché) can’t imagine working anywhere else.
Because I started when the editors were closing the next
issue, there was no time to discuss assignments, so I was left with reading and
learning the magazine.
I have probably read, extensively, 12 issues and every
single one is brilliant. Despite my feeble attempts to research the publication
before, there is something that clicks when you can look at issue after issue
and let it all soak in.
I learned that AARP
The Magazine is truly about living life, which should have nothing to do
with how old you are. The story about how children rarely ask Dads for advice
practically moved me to tears, so much so that I tore it out and mailed it to
my father. On almost every page there is something that I have to jot on a
post-it note to try later.
I’m sure everyone feels this way about their internship, but
because this is a magazine I didn’t read before, it’s like discovering a new
friend and immediately growing close with them.
Yes, the people here are great, and I am staring down a
lineup up of terrifically challenging assignments, but honestly, if they had me
read the magazine from now until August, I would be a happy camper.
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