Monday I walked in to work for my afternoon shift at 3p.m. and Susan, one of the head bookers, sent me an email asking, “Are you working the evening shift today?” I told her I was. She responded, “Great, I really need your help. I’ll come by and fill you in around 5.” A few hours later Susan came by my desk and asked me to follow her to the break room. We walked in, preparing our separate cups of coffee, and I felt less like an intern and very much like a colleague as she told me that today I would be in charge of welcoming, ‘mic’ing, and assigning the guests to their posts; basically, I was supposed to take over Susan’s job once she got the guests booked. This was a huge deal considering interns are very rarely trusted enough to do this! Since she had guests taping up to the show at various locations across the nation, she needed someone to take over her role here for the night.
Needless to say, I was excited, yet more than a little nervous. One mistake here could truly mess up the order of the show and the availability of the guests for future shows. Susan made sure I understood this and felt the weight that any little mistake could cost. I went back to my desk and made a list of facts I needed to know about both the guests. I also made sure I knew where I would need to meet at security, walked the path to make-up and mikes, introduced myself to the make-up room as well as the technical aids, and contacted front desk to give them my desk’s phone number; this way they could contact me directly when the guests where here and Susan would not have to be disturbed. I pulled it off, somehow, without any major mistakes. I got a little nervous speaking to the guests and almost forgot to offer them tea and coffee, but everything flowed pretty well. Susan was very pleased! She thanked me in front of the entire team the next morning at the staff meeting. I was very excited. Yet, amidst all these positives, a step backward was inevitable when it came.
While at work I was finishing my class presentation, reviewing some final details, and somehow lost the entire thing! I rebuilt five slides by 5:30 pm when I would usually leave for class. At the same time, my boss came to me and said I would get to time out the show for the day, as a reward for my work yesterday. I was ecstatic, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. I had not paid much attention to the run-down since 4pm when I had lost my presentation. This was also the day I was supposed to present. I sent an email, pretty last minute and got excused from the presentation for the day, of course with penalty. Then I spent the next hour quickly learning the entire run-down, but even then I felt as if I wasn’t fully comfortable with it. My boss said it wouldn’t be too bad; I would have a PA with me. So, I timed out the show, somehow not completely screwing up, though I almost added a minute extra twice had not the PA been there to correct me. It was a hectic day with a hectic ending and the upcoming week had yet more challenges.
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