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.