Intern Chick

You could say I became jaded, you could even say I lost my focus.  Call it whatever you want to call it; the fact of the matter is, I lost it.  I've been looking for it, and wherever I did lose it, I was starting to believe with my whole heart that it was lost forever.  It's not that I wasn't trying to find it either, because I looked everywhere.  I looked for it at live performances, in books about legendary musicians and executives...even in the lyrics to all my favorite records.  

Nowhere. To. Be. Found.

I became numb to everything.  I didn't care when a Hip-Hop icon called my job and I just so happened to answer the phone.  Wasn't impressed when a producer I've been following for years came into work.  Meeting the CEO of a music empire?  None of it mattered anymore.  But on Friday, that feeling came back to me and I'm holding on to it tighter than ever.

Let me explain.  When a new act gets signed to a label, they come in at some point before their album drops for a meet and greet with the label staff.  So on Friday at internship #3 when I was told we'd be having a meet and greet with a new group that I actually do like, I still wasn't really impressed.  It's all the same to me.  This group has been signed to the label for a while and is about to drop their album, so I was kind of confused why they were doing this so late in the game.  I reluctantly went into the conference room with the other intern whose giddiness and overall excitement was irritating at best and we took a seat at the big long table.  Someone started playing the group's video on the big projector and turned the volume up all the way and all I could think was, "Great, this is so incredibly corny."  

Finally the group came in and we all clapped for them and they went around the room and gave everyone hugs and kisses.  I watched one of them hold back tears as they made their way to the front of the room.  When it quieted down, they thanked the staff for believing in them and working hard on their project and that their dreams were coming true.  Then they said that in order to express their appreciation, they would really show us and started singing "Thank You" by Boyz II Men, acapella.  Anyone that knows me knows that I am a sucker for two things and they are Boyz II Men and acapella renditions of songs.  It touched me in a place that had been empty ever since I lost that feeling I mentioned before.  Then they sang another Boyz II Men song, acapella again, and I was utterly impressed by their talent and in awe at how easy they made it look.  The group sounded incredible and really showed that they do this because they love it.

And then I remembered why, since I was a little girl, I want to work in the music industry. Since that first time I heard Boyz II Men, I couldn't figure out why there weren't more artists that sounded as good as they did.  The whole reason I knew I was meant to do this was because I wanted to help create more music like that; the kind with talent, meaning, and soul.  This group I saw on Friday was just that and restored my faith in the music industry, reminding me just how I got to be sitting in that conference room, listening to these guys sing.

My faith in the belief that I'm doing what I was meant to do with my life was restored on Friday and I walked out of that conference room simply elated.