Your internship is going well. You settle in quickly, managing your time and performing your tasks. Sometimes you feel as if your skills are not being utilized, sometimes you find yourself wallowing under assignments that you have no clue how to figure out. It is all a learning experience, but how do you get the most out of your internship? And where does this all fit into your concentration? Where are the connections to all that you have learned so far?

I realized pretty quickly after starting my work for the summer that this experience was going to be unique unto its own and unlike anything I had learned so far at college. The first step as part of my internship working for a literary magazine was to become immersed in the world of literature. Not simply reading great works, but rather trying to grasp what lies behind in the world of the writer, the editor, and the publisher. This is where I saw the connection to the business world was being made. Discovering the intricate market that publishing is unto itself. Within the first two weeks I had probably read more material than I had at a semester at college, but that is what it takes to understand much of this unique environment. I had to determine what makes a story worth publishing, what is not worth a second glance. And even though I was not supposed to spend my entire time learning this, rather just to get a feel for what this work is like, I found myself being dragged into story after story. Reading what an author has written became akin to grasping a fleeting glimpse into that person’s thoughts. I had never considered essays this way, but when you realize that this is a person’s life work, and you might have to reject such an effort, the stories become that much more significant. I am glad that I am not an editor, I would find making such decisions too difficult.

But back to the initial questions, where does the world of literature align to business. It was then that I realized literature was akin to entrepreneurship. Both require creative thinking and an ability to persuade the audience. Instead of turning ideas into profit, writers turn words into art. And even though I spend much of my time trying to figure out how to get a grant or finding new ways to bring exposure to online magazines, I have managed to get the most out of my internship by realizing the many correlations between the world of creative writing and business.