Advice

From the EIC of CosmoGIRL! (on ED2010.com) to recent college graduates aspiring to enter the magazine industry:

"You’ll see your [non-magazine] friends landing jobs at big companies, entering sales training programs, making pretty good salaries, etc. You are not in the same kind of business so don’t compare yourself to them. You may not get a job right out of school and you may not even have a staff position a year after you graduate... "

Umm...k, thanks?

But let's be honest with ourselves here. That's just how it is. I've heard of people interning for free AFTER they graduate just so they can land real jobs (good lord, how long can someone work for free until she just whores herself for money?) Some people take freelance/paid intern positions for a year or two after graduating until they finally land a job. The magazine or even the journalism field as a whole is definitely not for people who are in it to make money fast.

Boo.

So to my friends who chose more practical majors and life paths, please take this into consideration when you've landed your job and are earning more than 30K a year, while I, umm...can't even finish this sentence.

Stress Stinks

A complete week of school + work has finished. And I am exhausted. It's only been a week!

I definitely need to go food shopping for my dorm and set up my electric kettle so I can have coffeeeee first thing in the morning, instead of waiting until I get to the office or school cafe.

Here's to a second cup of coffee before 11 a.m. Here's to coffee, period!

I do love working though (god, I'm gonna hate myself for saying that. Meanwhile I just spent what could've been a free afternoon working from my dorm room) and it sucks that my work schedule is cut because of school, just when I was starting to get more responsibilities — like doing my own programming and writing using my own editorial judgment (!!) for the website. I can't wait to graduate. I'm pretty sure I've expressed that sentiment about a million times.

Meanwhile, on Gawker is a copy of an email from a Yale undergrad, with suggestions for taking the easiest classes. It makes me jealous really. Oh the entitled people. And to think, these people will someday rule the country. It's the same everywhere, in the US, the Philippines, probably Zimbabwe: having money makes life a whole lot easier. Equality in terms of economics is a fairytale.

This and that

I miss my mom. I sound like a complete baby because she is coming back soon, but dammit, I'll admit it. I miss my family in the Philippines. It sucks being so far away from family. It just does.

I miss my single room.

I miss my old AIM screenname. I've had it for 7 years and it was awesome. My new one is not so awesome. (Ask for it if you don't have it.)

I went shopping for some dorm necessities on Monday and I bought new dryer sheets. They're Downy's Lavender and Vanilla sheets and they smell FANTASTIC. I love the smell of lavender (I have lavender scented cream, candles, room spray...). I first got into it because lavender supposedly has calming and sleep-promoting qualities. But with the vanilla, it smells like cake frosting. If I could have sniffed all my laundry yesterday without looking like a freak, I would have done it.

I honestly believe I've lost weight since moving to the Manhattan campus. No fridge for a week, dining hall only open from 8am to 8 pm, working and school all day... I have some catching up to do.

Now I want a damn cupcake.

I want to do some travelling. To experience something new and learn things. You know?

I still want a cupcake.

Toodles.


Aloha 'oe, farewell to thee... until we meet again.

Your mom goes to college!

I just moved into the dorms in the Manhattan campus (I don't know why it's called a campus when it's just one building) and I must say, it's definitely better than living in Queens.

While in Queens I had: my own room, my own spacious closet, my own tv and cable, my own fridge, and 2 private bathrooms and a living room to share with my suitemates. But in Manhattan I have: a triple room, a tiny closet, public bathrooms for the entire floor, a tv for the entire floor because the rooms don't have cable connection (#$%^!!). Based on that alone, I pretty much traded down.

BUT. When I woke up this morning to go to work, I didn't have to stand around Union Turnpike to wait for the bus to take the subway. I just walked 2 blocks to the subway. (Well first I walked to McDonalds for breakfast because the dining hall wasn't open yet...) People were already out, walking to school, work, wherever. There was actual LIFE. And there's Battery Park and the Hudson River footsteps away.

AAAND... Queens is just shitty. Really.

If only I actually set up my schedules better last year so that I could have transferred campuses my junior year instead of senior year, gotten my single room....

Ahh I can't wait to have my own apartment! It probably won't be in TriBeCa, and it probably won't happen until a few years from now (crap, why couldn't I have taken a more practical major that will actually earn money), but aah!

I will miss dorming though. And I will miss college. But I'm looking forward to what's coming next. (That was trite, but whatever.)

I Love New York, I Hate the MTA (or, "Interns Can't Afford to Take Cabs to Work, Dammit")

So I woke up this morning at 5:40 (for the past week I've been waking up earlier than my alarm, that RARELY happened before. I can sleep like a baby) to thunder and rain against the airconditioner right by my head. Rainboots it is, I thought and went on with my normal morning routine.

By the time I was done showering, getting dressed, having breakfast, and catching up with the news (Okay, so there was no 2/3 service from this street to that street...blah blah I should be fine), it was HOT and sunny. No more rainboots. And thank god for that because if I had to wait at that train station with an extra inch of anything covering my skin, I would have just given up and gone home.

After a 30-minute, sweat-is-dripping-down-places-they-should-not-be-dripping wait in the train station, an hour-long train ride to Fulton St. which would normally take less than 30 minutes, and a 20-minute, $20 taxi ride from the Financial District to Rockefeller Center, I was at work, where surprisingly, people were already there, doing work. Where they came from and how they got there, I don't know.

Okay, so I understand there was a tornado in Bay Ridge. Flooding. But are you freaking telling me that bad weather is enough to stop the entire NYC transportation system? Really, MTA? Forget the Second Avenue line, how about repairing the entire system? How about doing your damn jobs better? It's not the most coveted job, but it's YOUR job.

As I was sitting in the cab, though, watching people walk or wait for buses/taxis, I finally understood why top execs and EICs had their own cars. It feels damn good not having to worry about your transportation. So you're using up gas and polluting the enivornment. At least you're not squished against strangers on a sloooow train that wouldn't even take you to Midtown.