This blog post is contributed by Medha Nainegli, Student Editor of Issue 13 (July-August 2013) of the magazine.

From when I was 10 years old, and was able to read and comprehend books, I’ve always, always wanted to be a writer. I kept it a secret. Because I didn’t want to be ridiculed. But I kept writing poems, stories and random pieces. I eventually confided in my parents and applied for a course with Writer’s Bureau to improve and better myself.

While doing some research for one of my assignments for Writer’s Bureau, I got to know about the ParentEdge internship. I was so excited! This was exactly the kind of opportunity I was looking out for, and so without further ado, I applied. When ParentEdge contacted me saying they were interested, it was a dream come true. I had literally been hoping and praying to do this. I had built so many castles in the air about how working with the magazine would be.

I spoke with Ramya, one of the editors of the magazine, and everything was set. I started on the first article, and reality was a rude shock! My first article was a disaster. I misunderstood the theme of the article, did it horribly wrong and felt so incompetent when Ramya explained to me that this was not what she wanted.

So I buckled up, paid attention and re-did it. I got my first taste of the professional world. The first article wasn’t easy; firsts rarely are. It took me a lot of time to get it right. But I was still excited and enthusiastic and took it in stride.

I progressively got better. Research was easier to do, I knew exactly what I was looking for and could organise the layout of an article mentally with much more ease. I began to assimilate things at a glance. Of course, it helped that Ramya would sieve through the articles and correct the finer details that I had missed.

The next stage was interviews. Approaching strangers via email or telephone is never easy, but I learned to do it. Talking to unfamiliar people and picking out details of their lives that I could use in my articles was a skill I soon developed; a skill that I am extremely grateful to now have.

When my first article was published, I was ecstatic to see my name in print, published under a piece that I had toiled for hours upon. It truly felt so rewarding!