A true story: my first BIG mistake.

The following is a true story of the rollercoaster ride of one young woman's internship. All quotations are real and have not been edited in any way. In order to understand the story, please take note of the following vocabulary:

Save the Date \sāv thә dāt \ n. : a card sent out to a group of people announcing the future date of an event they will be invited to.


There I was, freshly reviewed. I had survived my first review as an intern. A review is simply a group of people who you have been working closely with provide feedback on your work. They provide positive feed back like:

" She catches on quickly in regards to the type of information she needs to gather while working on projects"

And also provide areas they feel in which you could improve:

"Work on attention to detail. Often misses little edits. This could be avoided if more time was spent with the document before it is passed through for review"

My review provided me with a sense of accomplishment while showing me what direction I should be headed in. Although "review" might make some people cringe (I did when I first learned of it) All it really is was an opportunity to better myself as a young, up-and-coming public relations professional.

So what did I do? I Tacked my mid-semester feedback up on the fabric covered wall of my cubicle, and got right back to work. I re-worked my plan. Although there was a lot of great feedback, my areas for improvement screamed that I needed to bring my"A-Game" to the table...internship table that is. So I set new goals, and reviewed the original ones.

So there I sit, freshly reviewed.

Completely focused, and ready to go-- and then what happens? In a matter of an hour, I come crashing down. For a short time, my confidence in my "A game" suffered from a few cuts and bruises.

In the days prior to my review, I had been working on a project, one with many steps. It even included a timeline! And you know a timeline means business.Things were moving smoothly-- The save the dates had gone to print, came back and sat in my cubicle, stamped and ready to go. I had placed save the dates in my colleagues' mailboxes, inviting them to a fundraising event.

And then someone brought it to my attention that the day was incorrect on the save the date.
Stop the press.
Unfortunately, the "press" had already printed, and there I sat with a 100 beautiful save the date cards, all with the wrong date. They had to be reprinted.

A large portion of my afternoon was spent using my fingernail to carefully lift stamps off of the card, and placing them on any semi-slick surface to save them. I could have cried. I sat and stared at each card, suprised each time the same wrong date appeared. After my initial shock, and the subsequent aftershock, I took a deep breath, and began again. I charted a plan of action: I had a few additional people check for errors in the new copy, explained the blunder to my client, apologized and moved forward.

Luckily, I learned a lot from the whole ordeal. I learned just how dead on my areas for improvement were, and I learned how to pick myself up off of the floor, and get on with me internship experience.

case in point:
1. You will make mistakes. No matter how much you wish you could go back and time and not make it, the mistake will still stare back at you, and taunt you with error ridden eyes.
2.It is your responsibility to not only rectify the situation, but hold yourself together while doing it.

I'm learning that a big part of pr is rolling with the punches. I've described pr as a living and breathing entity, and as with any other unstable creature, mistakes and changes are a part of the process. No matter what, I'm learning that insisting excellence is a process, and that it is definitely worth it.