The Intern Project: Are You Standing Tough?

When we were first hired, and even in the initial interview, I remember Romaine mentioning a special “intern project”. For the first few weeks, there was little mention of the project.  I can’t say I thought much of it.

But back in September, the reports of teen suicides were becoming more and more frequent. Many of these kids were bullied because they were gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, or even straight-out misunderstood. Derek and Romaine, inspired by a recent interview with wrestling legend Mick Foley, decided that we should start a campaign that could make on impact on both the bullies and the kids who are being bullied.
Romaine sat us interns down and explained the gist of the project: with the help of Mick Foley, she planned to set up interviews with some of the nation’s “toughest” athletes. 

Let me just say that as an intern, this is an incredible opportunity, but more realistically, it’s a crazy fucking responsibility. All too often kids like Wil and I end up in internships where we are relegated to go-foring and bitch-work. It means a lot to both of us to be involved in a project we can actually be proud of…you know, something you can put on a resume.

So with help from Lubri-Katie, me and Wil found ourselves in the studio right away recording the first set of PSAs. For a 22-year-old like me, it’s hard to pretend to be a professional while conducting interviews with famous wrestlers.  With the exception of a few slip-ups and retarded misstatements, like calling people the wrong name or getting my facts wrong, everything went well. And that weekend Wil was off to mix and edit everything together.
In the end, everyone is excited to get the new site www.standingtough.com  off the ground and launch the campaign. It’s been great so far, and it’s only going to get better.