Where has the time gone?

Wow have I fallen behind a ton. Things are still going really well at the internship. My big project for the semester is going to be the Best Buddies day for our corporate offices. I will be in charge of the entire project. It will be about September 4th is the planned day. We normally have around 300-400 people that come to it. I am really excited to plan and execute the game plan for the event. I gained valuable experience in event planning from my work with the food&care coalition last semester. I will really use that experience with this project. One cool thing that I got to be a part was we recently had our new PR firm for the United States come in. Publicis was the name of the firm. It was a really good opportunity for me to be around PR pros. I was really impressed with these guys. They all ready some great ideas how we can improve our PR efforts in the United States. It was also a great opportunity to meet a lot of our founders, and executives. Through this I have gained a lot of confidence in the people around me. The company really does have the best talent in the industry with us. I really think my two bosses are some of the best minds in PR. I all ready have learned so much from Jeff and Bob. It would be a dream come true to work these two great minds full time. I guess that is not up to me at this moment. This journal thing has not worked at so well. But I will repent and do better.

Falling Behind

I have missed a couple of days. I have been working on a report with the department. This was one report that I was excited to write about. Though I can not say what the topic was, I will just say that I had a fun time writing it. I am very excited for the weekend. We are going up to Midway for a good long weekend. Hopefully I can relax a little bit. We are going up with my in-laws. I do actually enjoy spending time with them. That is all for right now.

Day 4

Yesterday was the best day so far. They definitely put me to work. I got to help with a case study we are doing about the company newsletter. It was very interesting to hear people's thoughts and opinions on the magazine. In the next couple of days, I am going to have the opportunity to write a report on what I found from the focus groups that I got to observe. I really feel like I am becoming part of the department. Everyone has been really nice to me. Although I am still the intern I have not gotten a lot of the normal stuff most college interns get. It just goes to show how great of a company XanGo really is, and how great the corporate communications department really is. The rest of the day I helped Jeff with a project on the Goodness website will be. The rest of the day I read newspapers and tried to find XanGo in the news.

Day 3

Friday was another fun day. I got to have a meeting with Shar. She is Bob's assistant, and as Jeff said " She is the glue that holds the department together." She was really nice. Shar also made some jewelery for my to give to my wife on Mother's day. After that I ordered office supplies and got introduced to most of the people that the department works with. At the first of the day I had a meeting with Jeff to see how I liked the first few days and to also tell me some of the projects that I was going to work on through the year. I really like Jeff he really knows his field, and is a really nice guy.

Day 2

Yesterday was the day I got to sit down with most of the department individually and talk to them to see what they do, and how I can help. I must say our department gets to do a lot of cool stuff. It is not all fun games though. These are the hardest working people in the company. The department basically makes the company look good to all audiences, the public and also to the employees. I am really looking forward to see what happens in the next couple of months here. I would love this to be a permanent position of course. I need to make the best of it, and have them wonder what they are going to do without me in the department.

My Internship Journal Day 1

I thought it would be fun for me to keep a journal of my internship. It is with the Corporate Communications Department at XanGo. I have been wanting to stay in the state to complete an internship, and to maybe even stay with XanGo. Many prayers were answered when I was told that XanGo would allow me to Intern with them. Because I have been employed with the company since December 2007, it could not have worked better. Hopefully for that reason my learning curve will not be as steep. Day 1 was a lot of getting to know who does what and how the department works. The highlight of the day was getting to listen in on a conference call with a partner PR Firm in Chicago. When I was introduced in the conference call, the firm in Chicago told me I was in the best hands possible for an internship. This was not the first time I have been told that XanGo's PR ( Corporate Communications) Department had the best in the business. As the call proceeded I could tell that I was in the same room with some of the best minds in corporate PR. I am so lucky to have this opportunity to work such great people. I am really going to try and take everything in and learn all that I can from everyone in the department. I really believe that PR is something I can do for a career, this is just first in a very long road a head in the PR field. I cant wait to see what day two will bring.

Being a father

Here in the next couple of weeks I will experience a major change in my life, pretty much at any time in the next three weeks I am going to become a father. It is something that I have looked forward to ever since August 9 2006. I knew this day would come but I did not think this soon. Amanda and I just thought that since we both got full times that we would just use this year to travel, see things, and do things that we have always wanted to do. Someone had other ideas. It lead to the conclusion; you are never fully prepared for somethings in life. I think if Amanda and I had waited until everything was perfect we would have never had kids. I just can not imagine a time that we would have sat down together, and said " I feel like we are ready to be parents in nine months. I feel like we have enough money now, lets have kids now." I just can not imagine doing that feeling like I am ready to be a father. I had a dream the other night where I was holding Braxton, and I said to Amanda " What did we even do before he was here." I can only imagine that it is going to like that, but even better. This little boy is going to change our lives for the better. He is going to bring so much joy in the life of Amanda and I. I know it is going to be hard, I know that we are not going to get much sleep, and that the money is going to be a bit tighter, however we will be parents, the highest calling that we could ever have. Amanda and I always say to each other, " I just want to hold him." Holding him for the first time will be the greatest moment of my life. I can not wait to take him to his first football game, to take him to the Zoo for the first time, and so many other moments that every father looks forward to. It only seems like a few short years ago I was heading to the MTC so excited to start the next step of my life. This last Tuesday, Amanda and I had to renew our temple recommends for Shane's wedding. Their in the waiting room was a young man waiting to be set apart as a missionary. I could help but sit their and remember the day that I got set apart to be a missionary. I still to this day remember that well. The thing I remember the most was walking to have a final interview with President Brady, ( the former Stake President) I was sobbing, and I did not why. Maybe it was because I was could not watch Sportscenter for two years, maybe it was because I could not hang out with my friends and watch Football. When I sat down in the chair with him and he sat and talked to me, I then realized why I was crying. It was at that moment that my life was never going to be the same. When the interview was over, I had never felt better. It was then time to be set apart as a missionary. I remember getting set apart, and when the blessing was over I really felt different, like I had a purpose in life. I know that when that baby comes I will feel that same feeling only to a stronger degree.