So, here it is, my first post on a blog I am determined to maintain religiously. It's devoted to New York City and all the adventures in store during my summer as a twenty-something soaking up Manhattan.
I distinctly remember my decision to spend my life writing. Not just writing, being a journalist. I remember sitting in a seminar room at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies listening intently to a specific lecturer, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jacqui Banaszynski, who told the most captivating story I had ever heard in my entire life... a story about her pursuit of an unbelievable series of stories she wrote about one of the only openly gay couples in Minneapolis, Minn. at the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. She followed them from diagnosis to both of their deaths. Her lecture told a remarkable story about her experiences as a journalist, and more importantly, she captured the attention of a sixteen-year-old girl with big dreams.
It was around this same time that I realized that I had to live in New York City at some point in my adult life. I was born in New York but was too young when I left to truly embrace my youth in the city. My burning desire to live in New York City wasn't cultivated by a number of factors as it is for many others. Everyone loves the big city: bright lights, millions of people and endless possibilities. My priorities, however, included none of the above. I had to live in New York City for one reason: baseball.
My love for the New York Yankees began at a very young age. I vividly remember Saturdays on my living room couch with my dad watching baseball before I really understood the fundamentals of the game. This weekend tradition continued through the last baseball season my father was alive to watch, 2008. So, I set off for the Missouri School of Journalism with sights on a spot in the press box at Yankee Stadium.
Studying journalism at Mizzou accelerated my motivation tremendously. I knew as soon as I got into my journalism courses that this was the place that would get me to one press seat in a bad neighborhood in the Bronx. After two years of mastering the fundamentals of journalism, I began my sports writing career. I worked as a full time sports reporter for the Columbia Missourian covering high school and college sports. My experiences reinforced things I assumed about sportswriting: captivating stories alongside curious encounters. It also opened my eyes to the difficulties of sportswriting, those I had never really given thought to. Late nights and deadlines so tight I felt my stories were occasionally underdeveloped, to name a few. My sportswriting semester brought me to a new discovery: I loved to tell stories, but I wanted to do so as completely and comprehensively as possible. I needed longer deadlines. I needed to switch my emphasis of study to magazine journalism.
And so, with a switch to magazine journalism, I knew I would end up in New York City. Not only because I still wanted it so badly, but because New York is the magazine capital of the world. With these new ambitions came a new idea of my future. One that involved the lifestyle of a fictional yet fabulous New York City writer, Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City.
The study 'abroad' program I begin tomorrow is run through the Missouri School of Journalism. It includes journalism elective courses and an internship. Two internships, in my case.
Starting next week, I will spend 10 weeks completing two part-time internships. One with Random House publishing in the eBooks department and another with Power and Motoryacht Magazine as an editorial intern. Excited doesn't even begin to describe my emotions regarding these internship opportunities. As I've told many of my sisters and friends, I'm finally getting the chance to live my version of the Carrie Bradshaw dream.
More than professional experience, I intend to make my New York City summer one of amazing adventures, exploration and personal success (as well as the occasional shopping rendezvous)!
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