by Since I began this internship with the Smithsonian Institute, there has been no shortage of new and exciting experiences. Initially, I had expected this internship to be both challenging but very cut and dry. The expectations of reviewing, researching, interviewing, and writing articles seemed to be a standard status quo in what I thought was going to be required. After all, the Smithsonian Institute essentially serves as a research arm for different fields across the humanities, and therefore my journalistic skill would only require the addition of my historical researching skills. How wrong I would end up being!
The most eye-opening experience I ended up learning about was how personal I had to make these articles. Instead of just talking about the stories of others, I had to ensure that I could put myself front and center for the readers to observe. This was something I didn’t account for when writing these articles originally, as I believed my telling of these stories would be personal enough. However, many of my peers have demonstrated in their articles their personal experiences with their fields, and it completely changed my approach to my articles. To hear their stories, as well as critical feedback from others, made me reexamine how I tell these stories about the selected American professional futsal clubs.
Ultimately, all these factors completely changed my expectations from how I have approached every article so far. For example, each story now talks about past interactions I had with futsal or the clubs I interviewed. These stories play a pivotal role in getting to know these clubs on a personal level, especially since I chat with them via email every now and then. This decision is also pivotal because of how I have examined other articles from my peers and applying that personal touch effectively in my articles. To apply those experiences into my story has not only changed how the article is read, but opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of what I can do in future articles.
