So I think I can be an intern for Chicago Magazine

Dear Mrs. Elizabeth Fenner,

Before writing these lines, I stared for a couple of seconds at this picture of you. “She looks like a tough lady (gulp!)” I said to myself. But there was no way I could back out.

You see, there are probably at least a hundred of college kids making a bee line at your door for an internship. Many of them Chicago natives, studying at Columbia or Loyola. Why would you choose me then, a European journalist, who didn’t work a day in an American newsroom?

Because I have the one thing journalists lack nowadays. I have guts. Audacity. Grit. You name it. It was courage that nudged me to leave a comfy career at the biggest Romanian newspaper and move to the other side of the Earth to become a self-thought English writer. My love for stories didn’t end when I changed continents. Instead, it grew stronger and wilder, like a stubborn backyard weed. I had no choice, but cave in and learn how to write in your language.  

Sporting a red scarf, during an interview with Romanian Minister of Education

Knowing the human attention is pretty limited, I feel compelled to go extreme with my own story.
 

You know how transgender people say they were “born in the wrong body”? That’s how my husband and I felt about Romania, our home country. But since we had zero contacts in America, legally moving here was a Sisyphean task. It took us five years, $10K, one blog, hundreds of e-mails sent to U.S. companies to ask for work and one lucky submission to the Diversity Lottery Visa.

It doesn’t hurt to have a person like this in the team. Put me in charge of making coffee for everyone and I’ll deliver the best hot drink that ever crossed your lips. Send me to cover a major story and I’ll spend an all-nighter writing the most original article. Besides...

I strive for creativity. Just read this and this.

I don’t return empty handed from the dullest conference. This one was pretty interesting

I aim for subtle humor as well. See here and here.  

I take time for complex stories. Like this one.

I write about pretty much everything under the sun. Like getting lost in a Chicago forest.

Why Chicago Magazine? Why not. Since when is dreaming big considered a sin? I want to be inspired by my coworkers, to walk in the newsroom with a shiver of excitement, not knowing what the day will bring. I also want to blossom in the journalist I was meant to be.

What can I write about? My writing can be shoehorned best in the life&style columns. As a legal immigrant, a wife, a foodie, a fitness lover and a former anorexic, I can cover anything from health and eating tips to marriage and travel adventures.

I am not sorry for bothering you, though I am honored!