Wow, I feel like it has been so long since I last wrote on here. So much has happened in the last couple of weeks. For one, I went to New York over my Spring Break!
I went to NYC with my friends Grace, Frankye, and Sydney and we stayed at an Airbnb (basically you rent someone's apartment from them for a couple of days) right by One World Trade Center. Everything worked out great for us, the only thing I would've have changed is to find somewhere that's closer to the subway next time, but other than that we had a really good experience with our Airbnb.
While I was in NYC I got to go to places like Mashable, Teen Vogue, Wenner Media (Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, US Weekly), Time Inc. (People, Food & Wine, Entertainment Weekly, Travel & Leisure, etc.), and I also got to talk to the Co-founder of the Clover letter, and the former Director of Toughness for Columbia Apparel (she just got done traveling the world for 6 months and testing out Columbia's gear, and she's also a writer for Rolling Stone, among others). All of these people were seriously so cool. I feel so fortunate to have gone and had such an awesome experience meeting so many awesome people.
Everyone kept asking me what my goal was for going to New York and why I was meeting so many people, and honestly the answer is so simple: I just wanted to make friends and create professional relationships with people I admired. The people I talked to have all gone through the same crappy prerequisite requirements that I am going through right now, and we have all seen better days and experienced successes (and more importantly, failures) in the journalism world. One of the biggest realizations I came to after meeting all of these people was the fact that they are just that, real people. They all put their pants on one leg at a time just like me. And they gave me some really great advice too, for one, always Be Genuine.
Don't go into a meeting with someone you've never met and just feel like you can ask them for all of their connections, it's actually super rude to do that. When I met the Photo Editor at Mashable she told me something that I thought was really interesting. She said "so many people come in here and immediately start asking me for an internship or for the emails of my contacts, it's rude, and why would I do that for them? It's the difference of someone like that who comes in thirsty for an internship and immediately starts asking for things and someone who comes in with no agenda at all, other than to talk to me about what I do in the industry and how I got here (that's me). For the first person I would email their information to HR, for the second person I would hand deliver their information to HR and give them a great recommendation for a potential job or internship." The way you approach certain things or certain people seriously makes all the difference. I left the building not feeling nervous to talk at all (other than the sheer joy and excitement of being in one of the coolest newsrooms ever).
Another valuable lesson I learned was that every single person you meet, and every conversation you have changes and shapes you into the person you are today. You are not the same person today as you were yesterday, and the person you will be tomorrow is different than the person you are today. Embrace new opportunities and take advantage of any time you can talk to someone and soak in the advice they have to share with you. You can always learn something new, and you can literally learn something from everyone no matter how cool you think they are or not.
It's funny because while my friends were off doing touristy things I was going all over the city for meetings at offices and coffee shops and having lunches, etc. I felt like a real New Yorker. I got to experience things and meet so many people. I am so excited to see where those friendships go and what my next adventure will be.
If you want to watch a super cool video of my trip check out this Facebook post (:
Hope you enjoy.
Madison
p.s. Earl Grey tea is my new guilty pleasure and I ate a $25 hamburger in NYC, but it was totally worth it.
Song of the day: Woodland//The Paper Kites
Rolling Stone Wall
Mashable HQ
Stumptown Coffee Shop in Greenwich Village
Donut in Brooklyn
JIMMY FALLON WAS AWESOME
Me, Grace, and Frankye at the MET
Grand Central Station
Metropolitan Museum of Art
NYTimes Building
Magnolia's Bakery Red Velvet Cupcake
Frankye, Grace, Sydney, and I at the MET
Home.