Climbing more than 40 floors to the top of one of the tallest buildings in New York City was not on my mind when I began an internship on the Flexible Editing desk at The New York Times.
But there I was, on a hot Wednesday in July, about halfway through my 10-week apprenticeship, stepping into a dry, ovenlike stairwell, about to climb over 1,100 stairs.
Moments before, I had been walking to the Flex desk with another intern, Ahna Fleming, when we ran into Marc Lacey, a managing editor. Mr. Lacey spends most of his day overseeing The Times’s daily news report. But at that moment, he was headed to the stairwell to hike to the top of the building. Did we want to join him?
Mr. Lacey said that he had completed what he calls “the summit” a few times over the years. He said he goes for a stair-climb when he feels a sudden desire to get moving, or to help clear his thoughts or solve problems when he feels stuck.
Ahna and I jumped at the opportunity. We rushed back to the Flex desk and asked the editor shadowing us that day if we could “step away for a few minutes.” He agreed, and away we stepped, water in hand, with Mr. Lacey and a few others he had cajoled into joining us.
We took breaks every 15 floors or so, pausing for a quick rest or to take a selfie — proof for the future of what we were attempting that day. There were no windows or doors that we could open out to the light, and it was difficult to track our progress.
We just had to trust the process.
We all talked, to distract ourselves and pass the time. Ahna and I spoke about what our experience at The Times had been like so far.
The “Flex desk” is a nimble team of editors whom other desks can call on for help. In the previous few weeks, Ahna and I had edited articles, newsletters and social media posts from the National, Science, Well and Styles desks. We were learning what it meant to edit from the bottom up, taking in every word carefully and ensuring that every line met New York Times standards for style and accuracy.
We asked Mr. Lacey to tell us more about his time in journalism, and asked the editors who had tagged along — Julie Bloom, editor of the Live desk, and Sam Sifton, an assistant managing editor who just took over as the lead writer of The Times’s flagship Morning newsletter — about their roles in the newsroom. And then we all drifted to the same question that everyone was wondering: Why were we doing this?
With a laugh, we all said some variation on the words, “Because Marc asked us to!”
“There is something about summiting the New York Times Building that is not unlike achieving your career goals,” Mr. Lacey said. “You basically just take it step by step. And if you believe enough and you have enough desire and enough hustle to get where you want to go, you’ll reach there.”
After we reached the 52nd floor, we discovered that the door to the roof had been locked, and we went back down to the newsroom in a freight elevator. There was no metaphor in this.
The climb reminded me of advice I had received from many at the start of the summer, and that Mr. Lacey echoed in an interview for this article: An early-career journalist should always be ready to jump at whatever task or opportunity arises. Even if it’s difficult or a little scary. Soak up everything that you can, and build relationships along the way.
“This could mean that someone invites you to coffee or to climb to the very top of a skyscraper. And all of those things, you should say yes to,” Mr. Lacey said with a smile.
That’s exactly what we had done. Ahna and I spent a memorable hour or so with people we could learn from. And I wasn’t even sore the next day.
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