Quick Summary
Main focus: preparing for the Gliding Stars spring show, documenting the final rehearsals and setup process, and reflecting honestly on my own feelings about the progress of the internship leading into the organization’s biggest event of the year.
Show Week Has Arrived
This week, everything at Gliding Stars shifted fully into show mode.
Practices became longer, more focused, and much more intense as everyone prepared for the annual spring show happening tomorrow night.
There were also additional rehearsals scheduled throughout the week. I was unable to attend the Wednesday skate because of other responsibilities, but Linda was completely understanding when I checked with her about it.
By Friday night, the atmosphere at Mercyhurst Ice Center already felt different.
After practice ended, volunteers immediately began transforming the rink for the show.
Large black curtains covered in stars started going up around the arena, slowly changing the ice center from a normal practice environment into something much more theatrical and exciting.
Even seeing only part of the setup process made it obvious how much work goes into creating the final show environment.
Feeling Like I Hadn’t Done Enough
This was also the point in the internship where I honestly started feeling discouraged about my own progress.
Going into the internship, I had imagined:
- posting reel series regularly
- developing strong social media systems
- redesigning the website much earlier
- and creating lots of polished content throughout the semester
But at this point, many of those things had still not officially happened yet.
The reel concepts Alexis and I discussed had not been edited and released.
The website rebuild had not truly started yet.
There still were not fully established systems for:
- social media management
- public communication
- or consistent content posting
And honestly, I started feeling like I was falling behind.
Realizing the Work Was Still Valuable
At the same time, though, I had to step back and remind myself that a lot had happened already.
Over the past several weeks, I had:
- attended practices consistently
- gathered a huge amount of photo and video content
- interviewed leadership
- written feature stories
- created promotional material
- met families and volunteers
- analyzed the organization’s communication systems
- and built relationships with the people involved
I also had to remind myself that the Gliding Stars season itself is relatively short.
Most of the organization’s energy during this time of year is naturally focused on preparing for the show, not launching brand new media systems or rebuilding an entire website from scratch.
There was still another month left in my internship after the show, which would give me much more time to focus on the actual web development side of things.
Another realization I had was that it is difficult to fully launch a stronger social media strategy when there is not yet a strong website or central digital “home base” to direct people toward.
Everything felt somewhat disconnected until that foundational piece existed.
One thing that genuinely helped encourage me during this stretch was Linda herself.
Multiple times throughout the semester, she reminded me how grateful she was that I had reached out about the internship. She kept telling me I was a “God-send” to the organization, which honestly meant a lot to hear during moments where I was doubting whether I was actually doing enough.
I do not remember the exact story she told me, but she mentioned that shortly before my email arrived, she had either been talking with someone or thinking about how badly the organization needed someone with media and technology skills to help modernize things.
Then apparently my internship email showed up almost immediately afterward.
Whether coincidence or not, hearing her talk about it that way reminded me that sometimes being in the right place at the right time matters just as much as having every single detail figured out immediately.
So instead of getting stuck focusing on what had not happened yet, I tried to stay focused on what was happening: the organization was preparing for its biggest night of the year.
Preparing to Cover the Show
This week I also finalized plans for another class project connected to Gliding Stars.
For my COMM 406 course, I decided to create a full news package centered around the spring show.
At that point, it almost felt inevitable that Gliding Stars would continue becoming part of my coursework because the organization had become such a major part of my semester overall.
Since I was already planning to document the show anyway, I decided to approach it like a full media production.
My goal became capturing:
- practices
- setup
- behind-the-scenes preparation
- interviews
- audience reactions
- and the actual show itself
so the final package would feel authentic and visually supported from beginning to end.
I wanted viewers to feel like they were actually there experiencing the buildup and excitement surrounding the event.
Reflection
Even though I was feeling some pressure this week, I think it was important for me to be honest with myself about where those feelings were coming from.
A lot of the frustration came from comparing the internship to the ambitious version I had imagined in my head before it began.
But internships—especially with volunteer-driven nonprofits—rarely happen in perfectly organized steps.
Instead, this experience has involved:
- relationship-building
- observing
- adapting
- problem-solving
- and figuring things out as I go
And honestly, that probably reflects real-world communication work much more accurately anyway.
At this point, the most important thing was not whether every planned social media idea had already been completed.
The most important thing was showing up consistently, learning the organization deeply, and helping document one of the biggest moments of their entire year.
Tomorrow is the show.
And after spending weeks hearing about it, preparing for it, and watching rehearsals build toward it, I’m really excited to finally experience it in person.
Next Steps
- Film and photograph the Gliding Stars spring show
- Capture setup and behind-the-scenes footage
- Conduct interviews and gather material for my COMM 406 news package
- Attend the Gliding Stars banquet following the show
- Continue organizing media and planning the website rebuild after show season ends