Musical Chairs

After expressing interest in becoming an intern at the Ann Arbor Film Festival last fall, I was invited to the office for an interview. What the director, Christen, really wanted to know was what sort of work I was interested in doing at the festival. I had no idea that I would have choices, let alone what the choices were. Christen asked me if I liked talking to people, and I said, sure. Or, there was more detail-oriented work to be done. That'd be fine, I said. I really didn't know.

At the beginning we all had a common task: Enter the films into the database and label the preview copies. Once the extended deadline passed, however, my daily jobs varied more and more, and I didn't have any ongoing projects to work on. Upon return from Winter Break, we had an intern meeting at the office. It was then I realized that Maria was doing print traffic. Kelsey had graphic design. Aaron was putting together the swag bags. Meghann was in charge of publicity. The list seemed to go on. Weeks before, Christen mentioned to me the possibility of being the Housing Coordinator, and I recalled this at the meeting. Actually, Christen said, I think Myrna is going to do it. I suddenly felt very down, and like I'd lost a game of musical chairs. But just then, Christen had something. The newsletter, she said, you can be in charge of the newsletter.