The folder and eating utensils I bring to the office every day.  I've received a few bemused looks.

At 11 A.M. on May 23rd, my life changed.

OK, maybe I didn't get married or birth a child or become president or something, but I did begin my internship at Game Informer, which is close enough. As a graduate student, I often get asked, "What are you going to do after you graduate? Become a professor? Run for office? Be a hippie?" I'm still not sure how to answer that, but I do know that my time at Game Informer this summer will be one of the most educational, exciting, and fun job-related experiences of my life, and will surely affect the trajectory of my career path for decades to come.  Here's a recap of my amazing first week at the always-goofy, always-hard working Game Informer office:

The first week was largely educational. I (see: Jack, Josh, and I) learned that posting news stories to GIO is not as easy as one might assume (I can't tell you exactly how it works, but I can say that it's much more complicated than posting a blog), that the GI website is extremely dense and extremely finicky, and that, while it's perfectly acceptable to install Minecraft on your work computer, good luck finding time to play it.  

Now that I've learned the bare necessities of how to post news stories, handle press releases, and maneuver portions of the GI website's backend, I can start legitimately contributing to the website in the form of news stories, previews, reader discussions, and more.  My fellow interns Jack and Josh have already posted their first few news stories and reader discussions.  I was jealous of them until I got assigned a super-secret (OK, not really, but sort of) assignment to research something for a story series GI hopes to implement in the coming weeks.  Just today, I was asked to write up pieces about Harmonix's Rock Band Blitz and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.  I was also given my first interview transcription assignment.  It may sound like typical intern slog, but it's actually pretty neat because I get to listen to interviews with big and up-and-coming names in the gaming industry.  

I also learned about the infinite kindness and fairness of the GIO community and Game Informer as a company.  I don't want to politicize my status as a woman in games too much (I have my academic writing for that), but it goes without saying that it can be undeservedly difficult trying to make a credible name for oneself in the games industry as a woman.  I won't go into it more than that, but I do want to say that I'm extremely grateful for the respectful and normal way people have treated me over the last week.  You all--as well as this community as a whole and Game Informer as a company--exist in some weird alternate reality where people on the internet are nice to one another.  I couldn't be more happy to work for people who respect me for who I am.

WHY IS EVERYONE HERE SO NICE

To end this post about my first week at GI on a somewhat silly note, here are a few quotes I wrote down while listening to either staff members or my fellow interns (a la the official Game Informer Overheard series), and a couple pictures of Jack and I being goofy.

• "Let's write about the top 10 babies in video games." -Matt Miller
• "The pic of Mario naked." -anonymous
• "Gotta love that sweet podcast juice." -anonymous voice coming from the podcast studio
• "Sweeto burrito!" -Jack
• "Oh, hold on, Sony's calling." -Andrew Reiner, being way cooler than I will ever be
• "BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN AND IT WILL BE ALL YOUR FAULT." -GI website handbook
• "You know, that thing from the Ghostbusters logo." -also from the website handbook

Jack and I were working in one of the intern offices together when a mystery staff person (he is clearly a ninja as well as a GI editor) left a strange wooden box on our floor.  Jack and I very hesitantly opened it and found equally strange things inside.  One of those strange things was a set of large keys.  The box also says, "A Storm is Brewing." The only thing I can think of is Game of Thrones...

Another strange thing we found in the box was a hooded red cape.

We brought the box to the upstairs offices and found out none of the editors actually owned any of the strange things; GI simply received them in the mail.  I wore a stranger's cape! Mortified, I took the cape off and draped it over one of the intern office doors to give the place a more colorful, homier feel.

And thus ends my first week as a Game Informer intern.  It's been an incredible time: I've filled my brain with knowledge of the inner-workings of the website, felt overwhelmed by feelings of acceptance, kindness, and general good vibes from the GIO community and GI staff, and become confused and a little creeped out by the mysterious hooded cape and wooden box slipped into our office when we weren't looking.  Here's to another three months of amazing learning experiences and happy memories.  Cheers!