If You Build It, The Money Will Come

For this weeks rendition of rock-and-roll intern memoirs we were summoned to write about anything we wanted. A n y t h i n g. Immediately, the ideas poured in and bouts of creativity spewed and flowed out of me like a fountain of infinite free speech.
With so much limitless expression at my disposal I could have attempted to really dazzle ‘em with something like a new record review or maybe even a sneak peak at an up-and-coming-next-big-thing indie band. You know, really played in the ring with the big dog editors and finally earn my keep as the next Hunter S. Thompson, marking my territory in the well-respected business of music journalism and bask in all its glory.

Not wanting to upstage the professionals, I opted for a different angle.

It’s been three weeks of solid, well-versed intern blogging at the Lounge - kudos, gang! And for three weeks straight and to my dismay I have succumbed to reading the odd negative feedback from somewhere out there in middle America. Apparently these members of the working class feel the need to shoot down those of us who slave away willingly to the unpaid labor force. Fed up and unable to go on stomaching such commentary as “working for free sucks” I have vowed to make amends.

Look out haters – you’re getting’ served.

Perhaps it is your own dead-end job that will ultimately serve as the bane of your entire existence and kill you slowly, sending you on a downward spiral to fear and self-loathing. I work for free and have doing so for a long, long time. Interning isn’t just for college kids anymore you know – it’s a foot in the door to where you want to be. Whether it’s a steppingstone, a launch pad or networking opportunity - consider it a sort of real life grad school. I have the rest of my life to receive paychecks and benefits. At the risk of asserting absurdity, I often look at it as free education. At last, a light of socialism sheds on our otherwise dismal capitalistic nature. I find it refreshing. I also grew up in Canada.

I work for free because there’s a new generation of working class heroes in pursuit of happiness. Success is rendered through the intrinsic happiness that comes by way of art form practice. Sometimes I work for free from home, too. I write for myself when no one may ever read it.

Make art, wait tables if you have to and get hired somewhere eventually. Discover your ambitions. Have drive to do more than go through motions and be a robot with a salary.
A musician strums a guitar for hours upon end – sometimes for nobody, sometimes for the passersby on the subway for an occasional dollar. An artist paints with vivid color and imagination because their surroundings foster creativity. And lest we forget – is not volunteer work the ultimate reward?

Working for free is key to unlocked desires. I never wanted to be that person who looked back at their life and wondered, what if.

I’m an intern because I can’t have my dream job right away. Paying dues is more than having deep pockets and stems higher than ascending the corporate ladder. Passion enables free labor to be enjoyed, that is - if you let it.

It’s not for money or my name in bright lights and certainly not for bragging rights. It’s a change I’ve wanted to see in the system since the day I stood at the crossroads of music and writing versus dead-end jobs. Guitar prowess lacking, I put it down and picked up a pen instead. I intern at Rolling Stone for free because my craft is writing and I’m inspired by music. I care about the goings on about town and in the world and desire to see it, live it - write about it. All I am saying, is give free labor a chance