As summer approaches, my stint as an intern at 826LA draws to a conclusion. In my all-too-brief months here (as measured in standard spacetime), I feel lucky to have been graced by the timeless wisdom of the staff, volunteers, and students of Echo Park. From playwright Kimberly’s satirical renderings of Hannah Montana to poet Matthew’s stunning deconstructionist inclinations—“Roses are blue / Violets are black”—the creativity of our students has never ceased to amaze me. No less amazing is the seemingly endless energy of those who have built tables, painted walls, designed ads, sewn time-travel machine canopies, and displayed the remarkable ability to explain the intricacies of third-grade math, whenever called upon. When I arrived today, the floor was coated with sawdust from the creation of bookshelves—shelves needed to hold the overflowing boxes of books that have been so generously given to us. Now the writing lab is noisy with kids and tutors working on homework and haikus, and the centuries-famous Echo Park Time Travel Mart is open for any temporal wanderers in need of assistance. Remember: whenever you are, we’re already then. And if you happen to be headed toward the summer of 2008, 826LA is looking for tutors and interns to help out with our variety of exciting summer programs—please shoot us an email at info@826la.com or drop by to learn more.