Working at The Reading Room CLE was not at all what I had anticipated, and I mean that in the best way possible. I knew it was a nonprofit organization and I knew it was a “start-up,” but I truly had no idea what that would entail. I expected a physical storefront, a formal office space, a team of employees, and a lot of answering phone calls and filing paperwork. What I experienced was infinitely more fun and meaningful than that.
While The Reading Room is a bookstore, it doesn’t have a physical storefront. The organization creates curated collections of books to sell in other businesses throughout the city, attends city-wide literary events, and makes the majority of its sales online. Quinn, the owner and founder of the organization, as well as the supervisor of my internship, often said that the goal of The Reading Room is to be an organization “for the city.” Choosing a storefront on the East Side would isolate those on the West Side and vice versa. So, instead of a physical store, the organization operates out of a space called the Gatewood Work/Share, which is part coffee shop, part restaurant, part event space, part graphic design company, and more (yes, more!).
Robert Gatewood, the main tenant of the building, head of the Work/Share, owner of the graphic design company, and son of the owner of the restaurant wears only gray zip-up hoodies and jeans and consumes his water solely in the form of coffee. In fact, I don’t think I ever saw him drink water a single time in my three months of working across the room from him. He is an incredibly talented designer, passionate business owner, and nice guy.
Other than assistance from Robert and Leslie, – the digital marketer with whom I only interacted via e-mail – Quinn runs the store on her own. She used her past experiences as a writer, leader, and library staffer to start her dream company, a nonprofit bookstore that funds literacy programs for children in Cleveland. She showed up at least 15 minutes late every day and would sometimes ask us to remind her to eat, but the commitment and passion she puts into her work more than make up for the punctuality she may lack. My relationship with Quinn was one primarily of mutual learning. She always had stories to tell, advice to give, and lessons to teach. I taught her how Instagram works.
The title of “intern” can mean a lot of different things depending on who you’re working for. Before I applied to intern at The Reading Room, I assumed I would be filing and shredding papers, listening in on meetings, and maybe answering some phone calls. I was thrilled when I got to The Reading Room and Quinn told me I could write content for their blog and website. (My only regret is not taking more advantage of that opportunity.) I never imagined I’d be editing and preparing YouTube videos of a chihuahua doing book reviews. One of the things Quinn mentioned in one of our first interactions was that she wanted to give her interns “meaningful work.” I am so grateful to have worked at a place that values meaningful work and career development, especially if it means I get to make heart-warming dog videos.
My main takeaway from this experience and the thing I admire most about The Reading Room and the other businesses in the Work/Share is the pure passion I witnessed from these business leaders. Not passion for making money, but passion for the work that they do, the people that they serve, and the place that they’re in. That’s something I don’t think I would have been able to experience in a traditional office setting, answering phones and shredding papers. I kept my part-time fast food job while interning, and about halfway through the summer I told my mom, “It’s a good thing I’m getting paid for the job that I don’t like and not getting paid for the one that I do.” My compensation wasn’t monetary; it was in meaningful work, experiences, and relationships that defied any and all expectations with which I began (and class credit, I guess).