I entered Red PR, as it was then called, as a fresh faced intern working out of the ‘Blue’ Sydney office. I had never worked in communications and had absolutely no clue what to expect. My first day is a blur of media lists, press releases and team meetings.

But my real introduction into what this industry was capable of was when I mentioned offhand a story of a seagull attacking me at Manly beach and my resulting phobia. Sydney Account Manager Mira’s brain (as any good PR professionals would) starting ticking over and put two and two together. Her close friend just so happened to be Editor of the Manly Daily, my local paper. As a slightly intimidated intern I agreed to be interviewed by a journalist and was then arm-twisted by the journalist into a photo opportunity, which included chips being thrown around me as seagulls swarmed. Safe to say I was cursing Mira and my champagne loosened tongue at this point as I dodged the over enthusiastic journalist and his small potato grenades.

Before I knew what had happened I had been featured on the front page of the Manly Daily, their online site, interviewed on Sydney’s 2UE breakfast radio and spoke with the Manly mayor – if only I was a paying client! It all happened within the day but that, as I’m slowly discovering, is the world of PR. It’s all about marrying opportunities to achieve positively phenomenal results for our clients.

I was shocked at how quickly the news world turns – the story was live online that afternoon (!) and also how far reaching local news is – I have never received so many text messages and Facebook notifications on a day that wasn’t my birthday. The story still gets mentioned whenever I visit my local café and my boyfriend’s mum has displayed it at her house. It’s safe to say my interning experience was a rather hands on approach.

Since my 15 minutes of fame I’ve been rapidly learning the rest of the PR world as a Junior PR Executive – what it is and what it is not. For example – it is not all schmoozing celebrities and drinking champagne, it is a lot of hard work and a lot of excel spreadsheets. There is so much background work that goes into each story I had personally never realised happened, or had even thought about.

Since my now infamous seagull coverage I’ve been taking every other challenge thrown my way with the same open mind and in an agency with as many varied clients as ours, I certainly need an open mind. Each day ends with me having learned something new about a topic I would have never encountered otherwise. For instance after researching for TheHome’s social media I learned the interior design colour for 2014 is Radiant Orchid and in the fashion world I learned the talented girls at Sabo Skirt hand paint all their designs for their pieces to ensure originality (I didn’t even know that was possible?).

I love being thrown in the deep end and taking on each new challenge with as much vigour and energy as I can muster. That’s what my time at The Red Republic has been so far – a bunch of crazy fun challenges. And maybe a little bit of champagne.