Confessions of a Twenty-Something in Cincinnati: From Extremely Introverted to Editorial Intern

Something I don’t think a lot of people know about CityBeat is that their office is somewhat tight-knit, physically and people-wise, as well.

I guess that’s largely why Ashley — CityBeat editor-in-chief, and my boss — trusted me to write this column for her, as her new editorial intern for the University of Cincinnati’s spring semester.

But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.

For those of you who don’t know me or vaguely recognize me from my UC Sustainability and Net Impact article back in August last year, my name is Summer and I wear many hats: I’m a second-year student at UC majoring in journalism, Her Campus Cincinnati’s marketing director, freelance writer and host and producer of my podcast SOSO. However, I must confess, I never thought I’d end up even owning any of these hats.

Yet again, ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always wanted to be in news. By news, I mean weather news. Specifically, as the meteorologist.

But that didn’t last for long.

Throughout my childhood and teenage years, my career trajectory has pivoted many times: meteorologist, pathologist, fashion designer, photographer, graphic designer, pastor, visual artist, makeup artist, performing artist, psychologist, social worker, East Asian historian and anthropologist…You name it, chances are I wanted to be it.

So how did I manage to find myself in the journalism industry?

For context, I grew up in Pataskala, a small suburban town located half an hour east of Columbus, Ohio. I attended Watkins Middle School for sixth and seventh grade, then transferred to Marburn Academy in New Albany for eighth grade until my high school graduation in 2022.

My household growing up — consisting of two parents and three older siblings — was a religious, Republican, conservative, right-wing, relatively strict one: Entertainment and media access were monitored regularly, with a steady diet of the God’s Not Dead series, VeggieTales series (no shade whatsoever because I’m still a hardcore VeggieTales stan to this day) and of course PBS Kids. This was alongside a shared Microsoft desktop computer our family had for the majority of my childhood. But I did grow up with older siblings, so some outliers were bound to slip though.

In addition, I had my books and magazines, which due to my autism spectrum disorder and introversion, I grew fond of.

I loved exploring the seemingly endless bookshelves for hours on end whenever I got the chance to visit Barnes and Noble, Half Price Books or local libraries. When tagging along with my mother or father running errands at grocery stores, I’d immediately locate the books and magazines aisle and pore over publications like Seventeen and Cosmopolitan until my parents eventually tracked me down.

I think the reason I was so drawn to reading — which led me to being drawn to writing — was because books and magazines were like the internet for me. I got to learn about so many different people and stories and cultures, and that’s when I knew I wanted to get into publishing.

At first I thought I wanted to be an author, but I quickly realized I didn’t want to make a career out of researching alone, outlining alone, writing alone. Plus my Google Drive was reaching max capacity with the amount of unfinished drafts I’d start.

That was until I discovered the Freeform show The Bold Type and Gimlet Media podcast Reply All. And all of the sudden, my journalistic drive was in motion. Given the size of my hometown and my high school, however, opportunities for me to explore journalism as a legitimate career choice were next-to-non-existent.

To carve my own path out of wide-eyed confidence and delusion, I started my podcast as a sophomore in high school, armed with my free Anchor (now Spotify for Podcasters) account and $40 Blue Snowball Microphone I had in storage for rapping — because I also wanted to be a rapper in middle school. After that, I started freelance writing the following year, came to UC after graduating, and now I’m writing my first column at my first internship, right here at CityBeat.

I remember when I sat down with Ashley and pitched this column to her, she told me she loved the idea because I’m “such an interesting person,” which I’m optimistically assuming she meant as a good thing. So if you’re interested in topics and issues surrounding faith, disability, education, politics, media, nightlife, city life and arts and culture, you’re in the right place for that. Even if you don’t find me personally interesting, my hope is that my observations and insights as a 20-something in Cincinnati can at least help you learn something new. And maybe even gain a new perspective of yourself, your community and the Queen City you live in that you didn’t have before. Regardless, I’m so glad you’re here to come along on the ride.

The "Confessions of a Twenty-Something in Cincinnati" column will be released every other Monday.