Write | Inspire | Dream
On my 18th Birthday, my brother Joshua, my dad, and I all drove from my hometown in Florida, 24-hours to New York City. Two days after moving up there, I began my freshman semester at Marymount Manhattan College. In a blog to come, I will dive deep into my education at MMC, my absolutely incredible professors, what it means to major in English, and what it is like to have New York City as a classroom. But, in today’s blog, I want to share with you what my life looked like in New York City and the realities of what it was like to live in, what I believe to be, the greatest city in the world.
Let’s Get a Job in Manhattan
New York is a city like no other; everything about it is unique. Of course, I haven’t been to every other city, but I know no place can match the diversity, weirdness, and uniqueness Manhattan has in all its 23 square miles. Every experience I had in New York could be considered “normal,” but because it was in New York, it somehow became elevated… let me give you an example. My first job was a retail employee at Anthropologie; that seems pretty generic, right? A lot of teenagers go into retail for their first job. Except my first job was in retail, at Anthropologie, at their largest location, in the heart of Manhattan at Rockefeller Center. That’s pretty amazing. I met a plethora of people from the richest of the rich, to tourists traveling from the farthest parts of the world, to the average Jo of New York there to buy their favorite Anthro candle. Each and every one of them brought a different adventure to the retail experience at Rockefeller Center.
Over my four years in New York, I had a few really exciting jobs. When getting my degree in English, I decided that my career path was going to be in publishing. I have always seen the world through exceptional literature, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life reading novels and sharing with the world the written word of incredible writers, including myself. In my Junior and Senior years at MMC, I interned for the largest publishing house in the world, Penguin Random House (PRH). My first internship with them was an Editorial program where I got to read over 25 manuscripts and deliver my opinion on why they should or should not be bought by PRH. In the final semester of my senior year, I interned in their largest imprint, Random House, as a Publicity & Marketing Intern. Random House publishes some of the most iconic authors of this century, and from working there, I gained invaluable knowledge; it really was one of the most amazing experiences. In a later blog, I will talk about the value of internships and how to land some of the most prestigious ones in your genre of work; for me, this was Penguin Random House.
So you want to Hear about New York City
The food, the nightlife, the memories, the experiences, I could go on for pages and hours about the amazing things to see and do in New York. In my four years, I bet you I didn’t even reach a quarter of them, but I will share with you what I did see and what I did do. Of course, there are parts about the city that are just not fun, things that you don’t really think about until you live there like the ridiculous traffic, the interesting subway rides, and the hastle of living in a 5 floor walkup. But the good most certainly outweighs the challenging. Some of my best memories have actually grown from those annoyances though! Like Fashion Week. I met a woman waiting for the subway once in Times Square. She walked up to me, asked me if I loved fashion; I told her yes, she asked me if I wanted to work with her for the upcoming February Fashion Week styling the reigning Miss Universe & Miss USA. I will never in my life forget this experience. I basically skipped my classes for the week running all over the city from fashion house to fashion house, picking up clothes, shoes, jewelry, and accessories all for the fittings of Pia Wurtzbach (Miss Universe 2015) and Olivia Jordan (Miss USA 2015). After all of the commotion, I actually got to attend shows. To this day, I cannot believe I attended Fashion Week.
Something really unique about living in New York is being able to do “regular things” in amazing places. I got to study at the iconic New York Public Library. I would go down to the World Trade Center to Work. I went to the Plaza for dinner and out to Tao for drinks. Your life becomes a walking cinematic masterpiece. But, remember that little thing called money? Yes, New York is incredibly expensive, so of course I did get to experience these things, but they were more so a rarity or treat. Now, this is just me dipping a pinky toe in the Atlantic Ocean when it comes to living in New York! So, if you’re interested in learning more about my life in New York, best places to eat, what it’s like dating in the city, the apartments, nightlife, or more, leave a comment of the content you’d like more of, and I’ll do a part 2,3,4, and 5 of life in Manhattan!
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