Introduction

Greeting, Talladega! This is an exciting time! Last week I began my internship at The Daily Home. As a part of your newspaper, I look forward to getting to know the town. I’m told this will come with time.

That’s the part that gets me. As an impatient product of the immature era, I didn’t have it in me to wait until the job technically started to start immersing myself into it. I spent a good portion of the previous week here in Talladega to get a feel for the type of news that goes on around here. What I found was this: Talladega is a hotbed of political excitement.

I know this because the first day I stepped into the office, The Daily Home ran a front page interview with none other than Condoleezza Rice. That’s right, the former Secretary of State had personally spoken to own newspaper …with an actual phone…for a half-hour. Talk about setting the bar high right off the bat.

This must be the sort of action that happens around here every day. There’s no way I could have just walked into such a big event out of the blue. I’m not that lucky.

Apparently, phone calls weren’t enough for Dr. Rice. She showed up in town the next day to do typical former secretary of state things like eat at Magnolia’s and give the opening address at Talladega High School’s graduation.

You can imagine my excitement. Here I was, not even on the clock yet, and I found myself standing six feet away from a woman who just got through helping run this country. She was just walking along, real casual and surrounded by an entourage of public officials and Secret Service agents who took turns casually daring me with their eyes to make a move so they can casually show how they’re trained to block a windpipe with a nickel. I shudder to think about what the agents could do.

Yes, the adrenaline was on fire there at the graduation. It only intensified later during her speech. It was just like I’d seen her do on TV. Dr. Rice gave a strong, heartfelt, index carded speech that even caused several other news outlets from outside the county to turn their cameras back on.

As for my own journalistic role, it was more of an assisting position, which consisted of duties like “carrying” and “sitting.” When I first found out where I was going to be that night, I thought I might get my own interview with Dr. Rice, but for some reason it turns out that a second-day intern getting face time with a former secretary of state is what the newspaper business calls a “long shot.” It must be a political thing.It was still a great start for an intern. I look forward to an exciting summer with Talladega. I think I’ll start with lunch.