Blog Makeover *again*

Yay! I have begun yet another blog makeover, however, this one is not quite so drastic as they have been in the past. You're probably thinking nothing has changed and it all looks the same, but I promise it's different(:

That's all for now!

Song of the day: Go With Me // Quinn Mosier (!!!)

Love,

Madison

New York Part II

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.

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KC River Market.

A few weekends ago, Megan and I decided to go down to the KC River Market on Saturday morning. We were looking for some fresh flowers and browsing all of the awesome farmer's market produce. Megan bought some flowers, but surprisingly I didn't buy anything this time. Usually there are a lot more options, but since it was still late February, a lot of my favorite things aren't in season quite yet. However, it was a gorgeous February(!) afternoon, and Megan and I made sure to document it. 

We took lots of pictures by the white brick wall near the River Market, just around the corner from Quay Coffee. I highly recommend any photographers looking for a random background to take pics against this wall (the pictures always turn out great!). The River Market is kind of a mix between a Farmer's Market and a flea market, but well worth the journey into the city. Hope you enjoy all of our pictures, and if you've never been to the River Market in KC, you should definitely check it out on your next free Saturday morning. There's lots of little shops to discover. I promise you won't be disappointed!

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Lincoln in pictures

Here, Quinn and I are on top of the Capitol in Lincoln. They have a 14th floor observatory and it was super cool to be able to look out over the city!

These two pictures are inside of the Capitol. Apparently they give free tours so we decided we should check them out, and us being the history nerds that we are, totally loved it. If you don't know about the history of the Lincoln, NE Capitol you should definitely check it out because it is a very interesting story.

Here we are walking around the history Haymarket in downtown Lincoln. Of course I made Quinn take lots of pictures so I could share them all with you on my blog(:

"Quinn take my picture!"

"Again?"

"Yeah, this is a really cool background!"

"Ugh"

(Examples of conversations that were happening in between these pictures being taken, ha!)

This is one of Lincoln's best ice cream shops! The shop is called Ivanna's and it's in the Haymarket District in the old Creamery building. You should totally check them out if you're ever in Lincoln. Quinn got a scoop of mint chip and a scoop of dutch chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone, and I got a Fanta ice cream float! They both tasted amazing. (*Just remember if you ever go, they only accept cash!)

That's all for today! Can't wait to share more adventures with you.

Madison

p.s. I have a very exciting story coming out on teenvogue.com on Thursday so be on the look out for it(:

Song of the Day: Wildfire//John Mayer

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She's The Man

Thursdays are probably my favorite day of the week. Mostly because on Thursday evenings I get to relax (which, believe me, is quite rare). My roommate, Bailey, and I like to sit sleep in our beds and bond while watching TV together. Today we decided to watch "She's The Man" which if you haven't seen you are definitely missing out. Think Channing Tatum before he was Channing Tatum and Amanda Bynes before she got...weird. I can practically recite every line to this movie. It's about a high school girl, Amanda Bynes, who decides to pretend to be her twin brother so she can join her school's rival boys soccer team and beat her old school to show them who's boss. Of course, there is tons of other drama involved and it wouldn't be the perfect tween movie if there wasn't a complicated love triangle somewhere in the mix, hello Channing Tatum...I mean Duke Orsino(:

Unfortunately, amidst our whole reliving our childhood with "She's The Man," Bailey and I realized we some how lost the TV remote ): Of course this put a damper on things, but not to worry, there's these little buttons you can actually push on the side of the TV and accomplish the same the as a remote can (can you feel the sarcasm here?). Also, instead of getting to totally relax I had some work to do which included finishing up a Teen Vogue story and writing my Informative speech outline for my public speaking class (one of these is WAY cooler than the other...). Nonetheless, Bailey and I were still able to enjoy reliving our secret dreams of someday going to Illyria and also kicking butt against a boy's soccer team. You're lying if you say you can't relate.

That's it for today.

Madison

p.s. Sorry our room is such a mess!

Song of the Day: Love Yourself//Justin Bieber (duh)

Update: Bailey and I have yet to find the remote, but it has to be around here somewhere so we aren't giving up hope... #college

Bailey wasn't really in the "picture mood."

"Here's a picture of me (not) writing my speech."

"Uhh..Hi I'm Sebastian Hastings."

"The weather was SO nice today!"

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