Beginning my Internship and Northern England

My internship placement started this week and I really have been through a rollercoaster of emotions. My internship at The Handbook, an online lifestyle publication, seems to be the perfect fit for me, but it did feel like I needed to adjust. Before the internship, I was used to having Thursdays and Fridays off and now I am going to be in the office from 9 to 6 on Wednesdays and Thursdays and working remote on Fridays. I felt like before the internship I was in a relaxed student mode where my only responsibilities were school and exploring London. Now I had another responsibility that just took a little bit of time to adjust to. The actual first week at The Handbook went really well. It was mostly just learning how to use their systems and begin working on uploads of stories. I was able to pitch a few of my own ideas that I plan to write over the course of the internship that I’m really excited about. It seems like I will fit in at The Handbook quite well.

There are two cities in England that I always knew I needed to come to while I was here. These cities are Manchester and Liverpool. My dad was a music freak and some of our favorite bands come from these cities. This was a weekend full of music tourism. I spent one day in Manchester and the next in Liverpool. From seeing the houses where Morrissey and the Gallaghers grew up to the different Manchester places they either frequented or sang about, I had a lot of moments of reflection and gratefulness within my first day. I felt the closest to my dad I felt in a long time. He was one of the biggest Beatles fans I had ever met, so my stop in Liverpool was just as musically focused. The most meaningful part of Liverpool was the fact that I was able to go into John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s childhood homes that have been preserved from the time they lived in them. This was not only extremely meaningful because it was something my dad and I always wanted to do, but it was truly mindblowing to be in the places where The Beatles were formed. This trip was definitely one of the most sentimental I had ever been on and I am happy I finally got to to experience those cities.