Composure: An Intern's New Best Friend

My first day of work was your average, typical, “textbook” kind of day. Anything and everything I’d ever imagined in my wildest dreams materialized right before my very eyes…from spilling an entire venti cup of Starbuck’s coffee down the front of my pale pink dress to a celebrity flashing me a smile and holding the door for me.

Literally.

I’m Kaelyn Malkoski, and I’m working as the editorial intern for E! Online in Los Angeles. Yes, I really did stain the front of my dress five minutes before meeting my boss, and yes, Ryan Seacrest really did hold the door for me. (Although he is beautiful, I am sad to say he is noticeably shorter in real life than he appears to be on TV.)

I guess the moral of the story is to be prepared for everything. No, I’m not saying a Tide-to-go attached to your keychain is entirely necessary, but composure is key.

Besides five sardine-packed suitcases full of clothes I may never actually wear, composure is about the only thing I brought with me to California.

I can’t say that I’m 100 percent comfortable right now in my new situation. I flew halfway across the country to work in a city I’d previously only visited once in my life. I’m living with a boy (friendboy, not boyfriend) in apartments (inconveniently) located 30 minutes from work (an hour in notorious LA freeway traffic). I don’t know anybody besides a friend of a friend named Caitlin or Christina. And what is The Grove? The Valley? The 101? (And all other LA lingo for that matter?)

Even though I am a genuine Cali-brah rook, I refuse to let it show. Although I am scared shitless by all of the organic food, Venice hippies, plethora of fedoras on every street corner, and most obviously, what my job will entail, nobody would ever know. Like I said, composure is key.

I keep telling myself that if I exude confidence, good things will happen. This is exactly what happened on my first day when my boss told me she thought I was ready to write for the website.

Despite the fact that I retained near to nothing of what she told me for three hours about formatting my posts, I replied that yes, of course I was ready. (No, I wasn’t ready to post on a website that reaches hundreds of thousands of viewers on a daily basis.)

But resorting to what I know best, I buckled down and started to write. Within an hour, my first online blog post for E! News Online was published. (Check out Monday’s posting about Russell Brand’s birthday to read it for yourself!)

I was pleased; my boss was pleased; my boss’ boss was pleased. And I think I made a good enough impression to ensure the privilege of writing directly for the website each day of upcoming work. 

I guess I’m a living testament to a belief in composure. Massive coffee stain (and GREAT ensuing first impression); unexpected celebrity encounter; first-day writing assignment that went straight to the public? Nooooo biggie. I’ve got my good friend, composure, by my side.  

So, aspirational writers, editors and CAFME followers, if you can’t bring anything else to a first day or new internship, bring this and you’ll be golden.