The week has flown by and I agree that it would’ve been much better if I had spent 2 weeks rather than 1, but nonetheless I’m having so much fun! I haven’t been able to write any earlier as I don’t have internet at home and I am always busy here. So here goes…

Monday morning when I walked in, I had imagined lots of rooms and an old, possibly cranky Editor. I was completely wrong! Brian was not just young, but he was relaxed and really friendly. Doug the cadet journo was welcoming and made sure I was ok with settling in. Honestly, both Brian and Doug have made it not only a fun and excellent learning curve but their friendliness is encouraging for me to work with.

Tuesday, I worked on a story Jane (another cool journo) gave me to work on. It was a local government story and I interviewed just over half of the councillors in the one day. I enjoyed working on the story and left the draft to be edited. Doug asked me if I would like to do a vox pop and I said, “Yes please!” We went out with Peter the photographer who gave me tips on how to speak to people and get them answering the question, really nice man he is. “What is the best or worst thing about the school holidays?” It was much fun going back and doing vox pops once again.

In the afternoon, John came and did a surprise visit. It was nice seeing him again.

Wednesday, was a great day. Brian asked me to work on the school holiday guide, to find 10 interesting things in and around Ipswich. I had thought that would be easy and take no more than half an hour, but by the time I got to number 5, I ran out of “interesting” ideas, so I stopped and worked on the Ipswich council story. I promise, I came back to finishing it off.

After finishing the holiday guide by lunchtime, I came back and Jane helped me to edit the story. 453 words needed to be cut down to just less than 200. Yikes! I basically interviewed all the councillors and realised I needed just to use 3 of them and only 1 direct quote from them. Yep, that can be done. “Chop, chop, chop,” Jane said. Now it was chopped it was filed as a story. Jane was very helpful in providing Great.

Afterwards, I worked on “What’s on” for next weekend, that’s the events that are happening locally. Interesting.

Today I had an unusual morning. Brian told me that he’s going to the Ipswich hospital because there is a goat visiting the children’s ward and to join him. Goat?! Ok, no problems. On the way there, we did the interview and that was good and a lot of fun. His advice: “Be persistent. Don’t give up.” Arriving at the hospital and being the reporter while Brian was snapping away, was at first a little scary in way, but I quickly got over that and enjoyed myself with the cute goat. As we drove back to the office, Brian gave me more tips on note-taking and for the internship at the Herald Sun.

I have to say that after most of the week has flown by, I am sad to leave it. It feels very much like home and Brian, Jane and Doug have been amazing in every way. They’re calm, friendly, supportive and encouraging. Tash and Brit were right, you’ll love Ipswich News. This internship proved to me that a career in journalism is definitely for me!