"Assistants run the world"

One of the women I work for told me the other day that, "assistants run the world."

It seems like a silly thing to say, but it's SO TRUE.

In one of my internships, I'm the equivalent of an assistant.  In the other two, I just help out the assistants who already work there.  I've been getting some really interesting insight into how important assistants are in the entertainment industry.  It's incredible.

A lot of the time, assistants in films are portrayed as kind of wimpy and meek, and they just cause problems and get in the way, but this is SO inaccurate.  Honestly, when I see what the two assistants that I work with/for do their jobs, it makes me want to be an assistant.  There's this weird network of assistants and they all know each other and it's bizarre.  Well, they don't ALL know each other, but within one studio, most of the assistants know each other because, they're constantly connecting their bosses to each other and working out schedules together to make sure they're matching, etc.  Being a single person responsible for organizing someone else's schedule and everything is HUGELY important and pretty powerful.

I'm also realizing that the way that assistants do their jobs is also really important.  You don't want to make enemies with the people you're constantly calling, etc., so at least your phone personality (if not your real personality) needs to be really cheerful and helpful.  Thankfully, I work for two people whose real personalities are like that too.  But here's the thing that I want to learn how to do.  I really want to learn how to be cheery and helpful and be able to do everything I'm told without seeming like some airy drone.

I think that I could definitely move beyond the world of assistants as I go on with life, but I'm becoming ok with the fact that that's what my life is right now.