It’s the third week of the internship, and there are more deadlines to be met, emails to be sent, interviews to be conducted, research to be done, reports to be written… no pressure, of course. But, I’m learning quite a bit, and about things much bigger than myself, I should add.

As part of my summer project, I am doing research on ANCA’s involvement with non-Armenian communities. (For anyone who knows some information on the subject, please email me at tsovinar.ancawr@gmail.com). The more research I do, the more I realize I don’t know very much about Armenia, and its rich culture and long history; not enough anyway. Even more so, I’m not very up-to-date about the issues which inflict Armenia and its surrounding neighbors. Because of such a heightened awareness of my own ignorance, I have turned to what has become my summer obsession, the News! Nowadays, I find myself tuning to Anderson Cooper 360 daily, as well as reading Armenian news every morning. On most days, dinner consists of a quick round of “how was your day,” and then a discussion on how everyone feels about the situation in Karabakh, or why Turkey is illegally occupying half of Cyprus. Or I share with my family members whatever I have gathered from my research. While I would almost always refrain from participating in the discussions my brother, who knows only two things, soccer and Armenia, would have with my sister, I now start them. Crazy much? My family surely believes so.

Beginning this internship, I guess I didn’t realize how much I would be learning, and even more so, how many mistakes I‘d be making…too many to count, unfortunately. I’ve realized that it’s alright to make mistakes, as long as one learns from them and doesn’t make them anymore…at least in theory. I cannot even count how many times I’ve done something wrong, but William has been especially kind and patient, and even more understanding.