Loss

I have been dealing with a lot the past week or so and it seems as if the world has ripped right out from under my feet. And as I fall what used to give me security is no longer there. Such is the way things go when someone you care about deeply is tragically ripped from your life. All you can do is try to pick up the pieces and hope for some semblance of normality at a time when what made things normal is no longer there.

Making Connections

Work is not the only thing in an intern’s life.

While we as interns have to focus a lot of our intention on our internship and try to have the best experience possible, doing well at your internship is only part of having a great experience. Making friends while you are here is just as important as the doing well at work.

For me having travelled 3,000 miles to do my internship the idea of making friends is important particularly since I did not know anyone when I arrived here in New York. For the first few weeks I spent much time by myself. Partly because I noticed that many people who I live with in my residence knew each other or had friends that lived in the city. So trying to fit in seemed like a daunting task, until it dawned on that that is what they were trying to do. As much as people seem they are different they more they seem the same. Perhaps the best help to get to know people is the residence that I live in, which offers excursions and trips for the residents to various events and attractions and has offered me the opportunity to meet interesting and fun people. Knowing that there are other people who are of the same age that I am, and that are dealing with a lot of the same issues such as getting used to this city and their new internships is a major benefit and ice breaker of sorts. Having common ground helps, but living in the same building helps even more. Especially since the residence is more like a college dorm than an apartment building.

Still the transition has been made a lot easier when I met up with some fellow Cal State Fullerton graduates who are also in New York it felt like there was a piece of home here in New York and the experience was made all that much better and we chatted about how the recent storms we have been having have been more like California winters. In California the people would bundle themselves up. Here New Yorkers at times were walking in the rain without so much as an umbrella. I found myself doing the same thing on a few occasions. When in Rome do as the Romans do or you can always buy an umbrella from a street vendor who can be found at the entrance to a subway station hoping to sell one to the masses that make their exodus from the underground during rush hour.

a clear thought

it just dawned on me at this very moment that being 3,000 miles away from everyone I know is not all its cracked up to be. part of me feels a bit homesick. but possibly because the idea of striking out on my own is somewhat scary. particularly to someone like me who left home and a lot of friends behind. still the people here are cool and I am getting to know people more at the place I am living. living in the ehs residence definitely has its plusses because of its college dorm like environment and all the social activities that they sponsor. it provides great opportunities to get to know people here. and the more I do the more I feel at home. the same way at my internship. the more coworkers and fellow interns I meet the comfortable I become. this is networking at its most basic level. networking not only provides you with opportunities for advancement but for support when you are falling behind. I took the time to tell some of the editors at foxnews.com that I have a disability and the response has been supportive and I as a response have felt encouraged to do my best and have been putting every effort to succeed at the internship and have really learned a lot about what kind of effort it takes to run a news website. it takes a lot but everything goes almost smoothly because of the communication that goes on at the office. I walk and I know I am in a newsroom. it feels like a newsroom but its an efficient one due to the system of IM based communication the editors use to communicate with each other. after a while I have begun to be accustomed to the rhythm of how things are done at the newsroom. and have begun to become comfortable there and at the residence, but more so at my internship than at home. sounds strange to be calling it my home but my heart is beginning to become comfortable here. and home is where the heart is. And as I write this the less homesick and the more comfortable I become.

Staying on Track

Staying on Track

For many the New York subway system is the lifeblood of the city as it takes people to and from their destination. Yet, for those who are not familiar with the system it can be as confusing as trying to figure out Einstein’s Theory of Relativity without the E or the C2.
Having been two New York twice before, and having ridden public transportation in my native Los Angeles, I was not completely unfamiliar with how a public transportation system worked. Still there is nothing like a New York City subway. I realize that by referring to it as the subway I am marking myself as an Out of Towner because I learned from someone that the subway is referred to as the train. When I think of trains, I think of Amtrak, not a metal tube speeding through the underbelly of a city.
The system was a little daunting to learn because knowing where each stop is is only half the battle.
In Los Angeles, all the rail lines are named after a color, the red line, the purple line, and so on and so forth. Here in New York the system works a little differently. Instead of the Los Angeles rainbow New York has the alphabet soup. The lines are named after letters and numbers, and to make matters worse depending on the destination a color. The 4, 5, and 6 trains are green. The N, Q, R and W trains are yellow, the A, C, and E trains are blue while the F, J, and V trains are brown. At first that made my head spin but then I realized that the train numbers and whether or not they are express or local are what matter. Local trains like the 6. the N, the Q, the R, and the W trains will stop at every station. Express trains like the 4, and the 5 trains will not stop at every station. The stations while conveniently located near most places in the city can be confusing particularly since they are more like freeways for people especially during rush hour when people are disembarking from the trains en masse. After having gotten off at the wrong station and not to mention the wrong train at least four or five times during my first week in New York I realized after being helped by some other riders that the stations are marked with signs telling people where they need to go to transfer trains or exit on the right street.
The existence of signs was not as surprising as the willingness that some New Yorkers have towards helping others find their way on the subway system. I guess when you are standing on the platform looking around and walking in circles trying to make sense of the signs with a rather wide eyed look does indicate to people that you are not from around here.
I had heard many times never look a New Yorker in the eye especially while on the subway. After being helped various times on the subway and successfully managing to navigate to my way on the train my starry-eyed wonderment and confusion now somewhat dissipated I began to notice that while I was spending my time trying to not look at the other passengers I noticed out of the corner of my eye that is exactly what is what the other riders were doing. If they were not reading, a newspaper, a book, texting on their phone, or listening to their Ipod they were staring at the floor, at the walls, or at their feet with this rather blank look on their face like statues that only seemed to move when the train hit a bump or came to a stop. When that happened, people would do whatever they could to not fall on the person next to them because they were tightly packed in the cars like sardines. Looking at the other passengers I felt that there was this huge divide because we as humans place so much intimate value on the simple looking people in the eyes that sometimes when I am on my way to work I feel a slight sense of disassociation. They say its easy to get lost in the city. Now I see why no one can see you if they are not looking then when the train stopped and the doors opened it was like peeling back the lid of a can and letting some of the pressure out. The passengers would literally tumble out of the car and move like a giant wave in the same direction: the exit.

long absence

It seems I have been remiss in writing in my blog for quite sometime. A lot has happened since my last blog but I am tired and will write it tomorrow.