Friday, August 6, 2021
By:
Welp—we did it folks. The internship has ended. It's so bittersweet. I’m really proud of everything I accomplished this summer. It’s more than I ever dreamed of doing. I wish I could tell twelve-year-old me—who wrote in her diary that writing was her “secret passion”—that I would be a published writer before I finished college.
All my loose ends have been tied up. The September Back Scatter, which I researched and wrote, has been sent to the design team. It'll be at least a month before I’ll see my writing in print, but it gives me something to look forward to. My book reviews will also be in the September issue under New Books and Media—something else to look forward to. My exoplanet update just needs to go through copy editing before it can be published, and I’ll probably have to take a look at it next week. But then I will be done.
I’m sad to be done. This has been one of the best summers of my life. (After, of course, the summers where I was a child and didn’t have to do any work. Just kidding...kind of.) And I’m going to miss my AIP email. I’ve never had researchers or professors reply as fast as they did to Madison Brewer, AIP employee.
I met with my mentors for the last time yesterday. We talked about how my summer was and if they could have done anything differently. They said I had been very productive, which was funny because some days I didn’t feel like I was doing enough! They also said I was a good writer, which made me feel really good. I got to ask them some of my career questions too. I’ve been worrying about grad school and what kind of qualifications I needed to be a successful science writer. Christine has a physics PhD and Andrew went to grad school for science writing, so it was nice to compare the two paths.
I feel a lot more confident than I did in the beginning of the summer. For one thing, I am more confident about my writing ability. I am also excited about having Physics Today on my resume and writing published there. And I’m more sure of my career path, at least for now.
The final presentations were all fantastic—I mean, what else would you expect. I was so impressed by what everyone else accomplished this summer. This summer was everything I hoped for and more. I’m sad that it's over but I’m excited to see what's next. Watch out—this isn’t the last you’ll see of my writing. See you on the other side.
Madison Brewer (she/her)