Final Blog Reflection

I think back to writing my Senior reflection for the Yearbook and Newspaper editorial staff and I remember my teacher’s explicit instructions to never use the word bittersweet in our reflections. She said it was overused and no one really knew what it meant anymore because they were so used to seeing it. I have to agree but each time I have ended a stage in my life, the word bittersweet comes to mind.

I think the ending of this class is "bittersweet" for me because as much as I want to move forward and get closer to reaching the end of my college career, I truly did enjoy writing this blog and going to this class. At times, it did get tiresome to do two posts a week. Many times I was writing them very late on Wednesday night, but very rarely did I feel that I was actually doing homework (now the analysis paper was a different story!).

I really enjoyed going through the process of writing my posts. It was always a challenge to come up with what to write about that week and a lot of the research I came across was very interesting. For instance, I wrote about how expensive Manhattan is and I came across a set of statistics that said that Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn are 3 of the top 5 most expensive places to live in the US. 

If I could do anything differently I would not procrastinate on my blog posts, not only so I could put more time into them but also so that I could let them sit for a day or two and come back to editing them. I think I learned a lot throughout the semester. I never had any experience with blog writing. Before this semester, I had no idea blogging communities even existed! I learned new skills and had fun while I did it! I don’t know if I’ll continue my blog. I had a lot of fun writing about New York and NOVA but I don’t know if I’m disciplined enough to keep up with weekly posts. Maybe I’ll shoot for monthly....

The End?

As I'm nearing the end of my posts I feel like I should have some kind of conclusion, but how can you conclude something that isn't quite over? Even though I'm still in the process of transitioning, I figured a good conclusion would be to tell you why I left New York. 

There were many little moments when I sat there and thought, “This is so not the place for me.” For instance, when two guys from my school were walking down the hall carrying what I can only assume were dictionaries because the books were so large, discussing their Professor’s lecture on the credibility of Plato vs. Aristotle like it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to them. This was a very common occurrence. Or when a mom I nanny’d for explained that there was no need to load the car because they purchased two of everything (one for their Manhattan apartment and one for their house in the Hampton's) to avoid the hassle of packing. These are some of the best examples I can use to illustrate one simple thing, the people were weird. Almost all of them, it was like there was something wrong with every single one.

There is not one specific reason I decided to leave, or some defining moment, or even a good reason. When people ask me why I left, nine times out of ten I'll respond with "That place sucks your soul out." This is the closest I can come to a reasoning behind leaving New York. I did not want to end up like that, and it seemed that the longer you stayed the worse it got. Many people there told me, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.” It seemed like sage advice. In short, New York just wasn’t really for me. I didn’t fit in there. I don’t like the cold, or the subway. Everything’s ridiculously expensive, and please don’t get me started again on the people. I can highly recommend it as a place to visit, but to live? Good luck. 

Potential Sources

I struggled this week coming up with potential sources for my analysis paper. I thought to myself, "Who is blogging about going to college in the city and coming back to Suburbia, let alone writing something that would be considered a credible source?" Thinking about it in a broader sense, I realized that I had a plethora of sources to choose from. After evaluating bloggers in a variety of communities I think I have a solid foundation. 

One of the main things my blog focuses on is the transition students and young adults go through when they graduate from high school. Whether it be leaving home, getting a job, or going off to college, everyone enters a new phase of life when they graduate. There is a large community of bloggers that write about this transition. One I liked in particular was called Year One: a College Blog about a girl named Kate and her experiences at a private southern university. Although our experiences are different it gives me great material for comparisons.

Another community I could focus on is bloggers that discuss moving from the city to the country. I have numerous posts comparing (or complaining) about the differences between Manhattan and Woodbridge. One man wrote about the top things he's learned since moving from the City to the Country. There was a great article in the New York Times about moving away from the city and Not fearing the Suburbs.

If I wanted to dive even deeper into the specifics of my blog there are many things to choose from because there are online communities for practically everything. I could find information about the price differences in different regions, nanny jobs, and students with internships. After doing some research on all these topics I feel a big sense of relief starting to write my analysis paper. My initial fear of not having any research to put into my paper turned out to be completely wrong. There are plenty of sources that support my blog in many different ways and will help to expand my analysis paper.

Cinderella goes to the Ball

The day of the party I had to work at Flavorpill until 5:30. I sat there nervously all day (not getting any work done) trying to listen to the conversations of my coworkers discussing their evening plans. So far, no one had mentioned going to the Yankees’ party. It’s not that interns are banned from these parties, but typically if you are attending them its to work the event. My boss left early for the day, so I took that as a sign that I was allowed to leave early as well. A girl needs time to get ready for the party! I texted my “plus one” (AKA my partner in crime Myra) telling her to meet me at my apartment so we could commence with the shenanigans. 

The feeling in my stomach was exactly the same one I always had when I was getting ready for prom. The butterflies and anticipation of how great the night could turn out and the nervousness of how bad it could end up build slowly. My annoying roommate was gone for the night so I also took this as a sign that I should take a dress out of her closet. After Myra and I decided we looked the part of successful marketing executives, or at least as good as it was going to get, we hopped into a cab and headed off to the meatpacking district where the party was being held. 

As we got out of the cab it didn’t even matter that I had just spent my entire food allowance for the week, I was more excited than a kid on Christmas morning. I confidently strode up to the girl at the front holding the guest list and told her that Amanda Haney (and guest) from Flavorpill were there. As soon as the words came out of my mouth I started to have a silent panic attack. What if they had figured it out? I was only an intern; what if they asked someone at my office who I was?   If they didn’t let me in, what was I going to do? At that moment all I could think about was the extreme embarrassment I would feel getting kicked out of there. Those few nerve-wracking seconds the guest list girl spent locating my name seemed to endlessly drag on with both fear and anticipation. 

Finally, she looked up at me and smiled. She pointed to the elevator and said “This way, the attendant will direct you. Enjoy yourselves ladies!” As the elevator doors closed in front of me and Myra, we couldn’t stop glancing at each other and smiling. We had made it!

The party was located on a beautiful glass enclosed rooftop with twinkly lights, plushy seating arrangements, an open bar, and waiters in coat and tie walking around with trays of appetizers and champagne. It was everything I imagined, but somehow so much better once I was actually there. This truly was the perfect example of how the other half lived. Beautiful people were milling about, along with a few very good looking baseball players that even someone as clueless about sports as I am recognized. 

Not only was the food fantastic and the champagne very expensive but the networking opportunities were fantastic. It seemed like a representative from every major publication was there! Everything about that night surpassed my wildest expectations. I happen to be a big fan of free stuff and the gift bags were fantastic! I may never go to another party like this for the rest of my life but that’ll be okay with me. I feel like I took full advantage of this opportunity and will have memories that I’ll never forget. My boss never found out either! And I may or may not have asked the model for the fragrance campaign for his number after one too many glasses of champagne that night... but there’s some things I’ll just never tell!

Centerpieces

My partner in crime and I

Fragrance Campaign

The model and I

Work Swag

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I had an internship while in New York. I was a marketing and social media intern for Flavorpill, a PR firm that promotes cultural events in major cities all over the US. I had a friend who was an intern for MTV that had heard of an internship opportunity while she had partnered with Flavorpill for an event with MTV. I applied, and a few nerve wracking interviews later I was hired! 

There were a lot of really repetitive, mind numbing tasks they would ask me to do. You know all the ads on the right hand column on Facebook? Yeah, companies make their interns make those. I also had no idea that every single piece of information your company ever comes across needs to be put into a spreadsheet that takes hours to make and I am assuming is looked over (maybe) once and then never used for anything ever again.

There was also a lot of perks to working at Flavorpill. I’m not talking about the letter of recommendation I would get at the end, or even the fully stocked kitchen that fed this poor college student a few too many times. My favorite perks, were the ones that didn’t come with the job description, the ones that I probably weren’t supposed to have at all... You see, I received a Flavorpill e-mail account as soon as I started working there. Their mail system, by default, sends all non-personal messages to all Flavorpill staff, including the interns. What is one of the primary things a PR firm does? They throw lots of parties.

When I first started receiving these emails I simply deleted them. They obviously weren’t meant for me so I just disregarded them. One day, fate intervened and gave me an invitation I simply couldn’t pass up. As I was deleting my emails (when all non-personal messages get sent to everyone you get a ton!) I came across a few words that caught my eye: New York Yankees and cocktail party. 

I quickly weighed the pros and cons in my head: going to a fancy party with rich good-looking men versus possibly losing my internship if my boss happened to be there. I could always get another internship, I might never have a chance to hang out with the Yankees again. 

I texted my best friend Myra, who is a master celebrity stalker and my go-to person for getting into places I’m not technically supposed to be. After much deliberation we decided my boss would most likely not be there because she was pregnant and typically pregnant women do not go to cocktail parties (but that was just a hunch). 

Our next dilemma was RSVPing. I already had a Flavorpill email address  so I didn’t have to respond from my sketchy gmail account, but I didn’t know how marketing executives (which is what I had decided to pretend to be because intern was obviously going to get me nowhere) respond to RSVP’s. Myra and I decided to keep it short and sweet, something along the lines of “Myself and guest will be attending the New York Yankees fragrance release party. Thank you.” Genius right? Then I might have possibly copied and pasted my boss’s signature that has her job title and work phone number to the bottom of my email just to look legit (don't judge, I kept my own name) but I didn’t even feel bad, because it worked! 

I received a response acknowledging my RSVP within the hour and the hard part was over. I was on the list! I’m attaching pictures of the invitation PDF and response email because everyone knows if there’s no pictures, it didn’t actually happen. Want to know how the actual party was? Guess you’ll have to read my blog next week!

Sometimes You Just Need Your Momma

I’ve mentioned before that when going off to college I couldn’t wait to be off on my own. I couldn’t wait for the freedom to go where I wanted, whenever I wanted and not have to explain myself to anyone. That part was great. But as Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben said, “With great freedom, comes great responsibility.” Taking care of yourself is not an easy task. Being at college I learned that my mom is a saint, and there are so many things she did for me that I simply never realized. Here are some of the biggest things I struggled with. 

Buying toilet paper

Such a simple task, by far my biggest struggle. At home, my mom buys the huge Costco variety packs of toilet paper that lasts for 6 years (or so it seemed). At my apartment, my roommates and I were broke and always fighting over whose turn it was to buy the next pack of TP. Naturally we were always out; you don’t know struggle until your taking napkins from Chipotle cause no one wants to buy the next pack of toilet paper. 

Natural disasters

Within my first week of college there was an earthquake and a hurricane. I lived on the 21st floor and I felt like I could literally feel my building sway with each gust of wind. There was no electricity or running water and we had to fill up the bathtub with water so we were able to flush the toilet. As soon as CBS news said that people who live in high rises should stay away from windows and lower Manhattan was covered in two feet of water, I was on the next bus home that weekend. Momma would know what to do. 

Homework help

I probably should have stopped this practice around third grade, but up until my senior year of high school, if I asked, my parents helped me with my homework. My mom is a nurse and always helped me study for my science tests and my dad always helped me edit my papers. This process became exponentially more difficult when they weren’t sitting across from me at the dining room table every night. 

Chores

I had to do chores when I lived at home but for the most part my mom kept the house clean and cooked the meals. When I got to college, I had two of the messiest roommates I had ever met, they were simply incapable of rinsing off a plate, and putting it in the dishwasher. The dishes would pile up in the sink until I finally got so grossed out that I did them. My mom also had dinner ready for me when I got home from work. No such luck in college;

 my roommates idea of cooking was cereal and soup. Yummm. 

Someone to take care of you when you’re sick

I’m not sure if it was my horrible sleep schedule, unhealthy diet, or suddenly living in the same apartment with two strangers with new germs but I was sick all the time freshman year. It took me a longer time to get better because I am incapable of buying cold medicine, let alone taking it when I’m supposed to. I also don’t like to get out of bed when I’m sick so there was no one to make me soup or tea. I just needed my mom! 

The Grass is Always Greener...

There are benefits to living in both New York and in Northern Virginia. Some are fairly obvious, and some you wouldn’t initially think of. Here are some of the things that I miss. There’s so many weird things you don’t appreciate until you don’t have them anymore.

Things open late:

In New York I lived right cross the street from a Duane Reade (Manhattan’s version of Walgreens) which came in handy when I ran out of toilet paper at 3am. Duane Reade is always open. In Virginia your hard pressed to find a restaurant that’s open until 10. Not in New York; pretty much everything you can think of is open late, if not 24 hours. It’s called the city that never sleeps for a reason. 

Transportation:

This particular aspect works both ways. When I was in New York I missed never being able to drive my car wherever I wanted to go and roll the windows down while the radio was blasting. As soon as I was back in Virginia I hated having to pay $3.80 a gallon for gas and always having to find a designated driver whenever I went out with my friends. I just can’t win with this one. 

Homeless People:

This may seem like a strange thing to miss but homeless people were a surprisingly comforting sight on my walk to school everyday. They’re much more interesting and friendlier than the weirdos that stand at the light at Dale Boulevard everyday, and I grew quite used to the usuals outside of McDonald's on 35th every morning. My favorite is the homeless guy that stands outside the stock exchange everyday and at 5pm he promptly walks across the street and gets in his brand new BMW and drives away to what I can only assume is his Upper East Side penthouse apartment. 

Food delivery: 

There is this wonderful iPhone app called Seamless. It pinpoints your location and lists all the places that are still open that will deliver to your apartment. Now you can use seamless in Virginia, but unfortunately things close pretty early around here (See above post). In New York, the possibilities are endless because of the sheer volume of restaurants. Studying for exams and have an intense craving for Vietnamese food at 3am? No problem! I can guarantee you will have a vast amount of places to choose from.