IDK My BFF Kerri Walsh Jennings

My internship is pretty cool sometimes. Well, a lot of times. I've already told you the story of how I had a Twitter conversation with Misty May-Treanor, and saw the men's national team play against Bulgaria, and talked to Karch Kiraly on the phone... but this one takes the cake:

I interviewed Kerri Walsh Jennings -- Six Feet of Sunshine, four-time Olympian, winner of three consecutive Olympic gold medals, most winningest women's beach volleyball player ever -- live and in person.

She's in town for a few events with Peak Vista Community Health Centers; first was a volleyball clinic for kids followed by a VIP reception, and the second day was a "Breakfast of Champions" at which she was the keynote speaker. USA Volleyball got a table at the breakfast so Kristina and I claimed seats because, hello, Kerri Walsh Jennings. But then word came down from The Powers That Be that we should give the event some coverage. Twist my rubber arm!

It was decided that we'd do a quick "Humans of Volleyball" photo/blurb of her on Instagram. Kristina and I were all ready to do it at the breakfast, but yesterday the plan changed -- we were going to the clinic that afternoon to catch her there instead! *insert mild panic here*

So we just, uh, casually strolled into the World Arena (seriously) and, y'know, introduced ourselves to Kerri Walsh Jennings (seriously). Luckily, though, we were with our boss; Charlie's interviewed pretty much every big-name athlete on the planet (seriously), so he breezed right in, chatted her up and presented The Interns. And she introduced herself back, as if we haven't known who she is since we were in middle school.

The actual clinic stuff came next, and Kristina snapped away on her fancy camera as Kerri helped some little kids play volleyball.

(My iPhone photos are pretty lame, but click HERE for a gallery of Kristina's pictures!)

I shagged a couple of balls, waiting nervously with my recorder and trying to keep my feet from going numb with cold (the floor was laid over the ice rink). The initial approach is always my least favorite part of interviewing people, and I felt like a really awkward vulture circling her as she signed autographs for a bunch of little kids. But I eventually snagged her! And LOOK, there's proof!

Photo cred to Kristina, awesome my partner in crime! #BallsNetsAndMoney

Clearly, she's about eight feet taller than I am. But it was a really great interview! Important people sidled up to her to try and steal her away, but she never broke eye contact and actually made me feel important. She's also incredibly sweet. :) Every sport should be so lucky to have an icon so passionate about growing the game and giving back to the next generation of players. (And I'm not just saying that because I work for USA Volleyball. Kerri gets it.)

It was a very giddy drive out of there with Kristina, let me tell you!

This morning, it was up and at 'em bright and early to head over to The Broadmoor (fancy shmancy) for the breakfast (they served steak. STEAK). It was definitely a good call talking to Kerri last night, as she was totally surrounded by people today.

Please ignore the giant ear on the right.

Kerri started her speech by stepping up to the podium, kicking off her shoes and saying, "Seriously, I don't know how you do it, ladies. I spend my days in bare feet. This is awful!" So I think it goes without saying that she's overwhelmingly, ridiculously likable, even before she donated a ton of money to Peak Vista and then offered a two-hour volleyball clinic to the silent auction to raise even MORE money. She's also a really good speaker. She flat out said that public speaking is way out of her comfort zone, but instead of being awkward about it, she was actually incredibly personable and engaging. (Again, not just saying this because I work for USA Volleyball.)

And when it was over, I got to go to work and transcribe my interview with Kerri. Then THIS HAPPENED!

We got a HEART from Kerri! :D

But my favorite part?

Who the heck are these random 38 people favoriting this?

And there's also this:

Yay, that's me! I'm one of the newbies! :)

I never know how to end posts like this. I'm all "FLAIL FLAIL FLAIL, so uh, yeah, it was pretty cool." But just know that Kerri is every bit as awesome as she seems on TV and in interviews and that we're totally BFFs now, obviously!

EDIT: Sooooo...

*drops mic*

The Power of the Intern

It's time that I spoke here about something I feel very strongly about: being an intern, otherwise known as #internlife.

Internships have basically replaced entry-level jobs. They're all but required if you want to get into the working world. Even so, I don't think attitudes about interns have changed. Interns are still sort of viewed as barely competent coffee-getters, go-fers, filers, etc. There've been numerous times when something, somewhere, goes wrong -- say, the blackout at the SuperBowl -- and someone will jokingly grumble, "Damn intern!"

Well, I'm here to tell the world that that's not okay.

If I've learned anything from living with some of the best interns in the country, it's that (most) interns are incredibly smart and incredibly motivated -- and that we would never, EVER be caught dead screwing up our jobs. We're the ones who go over things meticulously, trying to put our best foot forward 24/7 to impress our bosses (and everyone else) and to prove ourselves.

I've been lucky enough to work under people at USA Volleyball (and elsewhere) who know that "intern" isn't synonymous with "incompetent," and who are willing to trust me with responsibility and listen to my ideas. I've also been lucky to work with another awesome intern, Kristina, who I've been a team with pretty much since day one. And it's a good thing, too, because we've made some pretty awesome things happen.

I mean, don't we look like the most baller team of interns ever?

As most of you probably know, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings are the best beach volleyball team of all time, having won three consecutive Olympic gold medals. They're also one of the best teams of all time, period, in any sport, as only one other team in Olympic history has kept the same members and won three consecutive gold medals. (Trust me, I looked it up. The other team is two brothers from Slovakia who compete in canoeing.) This past August was the first anniversary of their third gold medal win, and Kristina and I thought... well, why not turn that into some awesome content for the website?

We took the idea to our boss man, who helped us fine tune our idea and brainstorm a bit, gave us some guidance and advice, and then basically told us to have at it.

We decided to turn it into two stories; one talking to Misty and Kerri, and the other talking to other volleyball greats about Misty and Kerri. I emailed probably close to a dozen athletes for quotes, and you wouldn't believe the names in my inbox; Matt Anderson, Todd Rogers, Holly McPeak, Sinjin Smith, Rich Lambourne, Danielle Scott. One of my bosses even did a video interview with Karch Kiraly, the king of volleyball and the undisputed best player the game has ever seen, Olympic gold medalist in indoor AND beach, using my questions.

Kind of fitting that his last name literally means "king." All hail the man in the pink hat!

And that's Karch answering my questions, and me transcribing it. One of the cooler moments of my life.

It was kind of insane! Check out the story here!

But then, of course, there was the task of getting ahold of Misty and Kerri themselves. Nobody was
particularly optimistic that we'd succeed, and for a while it wasn't looking too good. But at long last, Kristina was able to set up a phone interview with Kerri. There was a bit of a mishap at the get-go that involved me sprinting through the USA Volleyball office with my recorder in one hand and our list of questions flapping along in the other. But Kristina pulled it off beautifully, and moments of panic like that are what fond memories are made of!

Misty, on the other hand, was posing more of a problem, and we were freaking out a little bit. How could we write a story about Misty and Kerri without Misty?! After a brief powwow, we decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. So I tweeted at her. Shot in the dark. Couldn't hurt, right?

Imagine your surprise when, the next night, I saw this:

I basically fell off my bed, before promptly screencapping it and sending it to Kristina with a text that said, "OMG I'M GOING TO PASS OUT!!!"

Misty ended up emailing me her answers to the questions Kristina had sent her agent rather than doing a phone interview, but any response at all was so much more than ANYONE had expected! Like, it was a really big deal that we got this done. Read our Misty/Kerri story here!

So our stories were published on USAVolleyball.org, and we got all sorts of kudos (and apparently made someone at the FIVB cry), but my favorite praise was this:

Hey girl hey! Life = complete.

How's that for some lowly interns?

Yes, I agree. [Photo courtesy FIVB.]

So the next time you feel like hating on us peons of the workplace, just keep in mind that we're busting our butts and chatting with Olympians while making less money per hour than we used to make working at a gym...

Sigh. It's a small price to pay for the experience, for sure, but... man, what's it like to be able to afford things?

But anyway, I digress. Interns. We're awesome. And if you insinuate otherwise, you may just find an intern's foot in some very uncomfortable places on your body. :)