Oh, the places we'll go

Gabe got an internship and an amazing one at that. It feels so good to say that with finality and to know where we’re going to be living for the summer (even though we don’t have a place to live quite yet).  After weeks of applying to dozens of internships in Los Angeles, San Diego, and even New York, Gabe received an offer from Blizzard Entertainment.

I know that many of you do not know what Blizzard is and you may have questions about where we’ll live and how we’re going to move our lives (and all of our stuff) across the country. First, I’ll cover Blizzard.

Blizzard is a company based in Irvine, California, that makes video games. They don’t just make any game—they make World of Warcraft. Even if you know almost nothing about video games, you may have heard this name. This is the game that made many of our friends in college (mostly, Gabe’s friends) stay up until the early hours of the morning. As one of my friends at work said when he heard Gabe will be working for Blizzard, he has given hours upon hours of his life to that game. The game and its devoted, maybe somewhat obsessive, followers even spawned a popular web series, The Guild (which you should check out on Netflix, if you have it!).

This internship will be great for Gabe for many reasons. First, it is a paid internship, often a rare thing in the entertainment industry. They’re also giving him a short stipend for our move across country. Also, Blizzard is a big name in the entertainment world, so working for this company will hopefully give his resume the prestige to apply for other big name companies later on. Enjoying the job is, of course, a major factor besides the salary and prestige. The internship will mostly consist of doing finance work for their cinematics department, so I have a feeling he’ll be doing some real, hard work, not just getting coffee for people. We’ve heard from numerous people that Blizzard is a great company to work for and that they treat their employees, including interns, very well.

And no, Gabe is not an avid World of Warcraft player, but this program at Carnegie Mellon has not only renewed his interest in working with films but has also created an interest in the video game industry. While films have been rehashing the same story lines and only expanding the same technology, the video game industry has been coming out with some of the most innovative, interactive story lines and technology.  Gabe will be looking for internships in Los Angeles for the fall and spring semesters, so we’re hoping that he can get some experience in film as well. But for now, we’ll see what this field has to offer.

And as for me, I will be looking for temporary work in Irvine while Gabe is at Blizzard. I’ve especially been looking at some companies that offer summer tutoring.  But who knows what could happen once we get there. Right now, I'm still missing my friends from work that I had to say good-bye to on Friday.  Living in three different states within a one year time frame has brought its adventures and excitements, but of course, the awful part is having to leave people we’ve grown close to and have made our lives a little brighter during the times we’ve missed our families or doubted our decision to go on this path. So, Pittsburgh friends, I will miss you!