A Love Affair

It's been awhile since I've posted. And it could be because I've been getting used to the internship, transitioning from post-college life...but I have to admit, it's mostly because I've been caught up in a twisted, all-encompassing love affair.

With New York City.

Making the move to New York: the city of big dreams, big lights, big names, big prices. It's so easy to fall in love with the way the lights sparkle at night, the way each neighborhood can feel like a whole different world, the constant soundtrack of people living their lives, the smell of roasting nuts on the sidewalk and the unquestionable sophistication and glamor.

But then there's the other side. The smell of sewage, always looking over your shoulder, the train traffic, pushing through rude people too busy talking on their cell phones to care if they stepped on your foot, and the constant sight of the homeless that always seems to make you reach for your wallet.

But regardless, I can't help but love this city. No matter how small the apartment or how high the rent or how much more depressing the unemployment rate seems here. The city has left its mark on me, and I can feel that I was truly meant to be here. I know this is really the city that dreams are made of...my dreams, anyway.

photo courtesy of Getty Images.

The Next Chapter...Gratitude

Life is...full of surprises.

Sometimes, it's easy to be ungrateful. When things don't go my way, when life doesn't go as planned, when I have expectations that aren't met, I get easily disappointed. I tend to focus on the negative. But, with the direction my life has gone in the past few weeks, I'm learning how to change that tendency and focus on the positive and be grateful for what I do have.

In a perfect world, after graduation, I would have gotten offered a full-time job, Bachelor's degree in hand and a full-time salary with benefits in the pocket. But instead, it's September and I've just begun my second post-graduate internship. A few weeks ago, the idea of interning yet again was daunting.

But now I'm an intern at O, The Oprah Magazine. An incomparable experience. I'm surrounded by so many inspiring and influential women who are in places I want to be one day. I'm at a publication that is read by millions and is actually influential -- contrary to many women's publications out there, this is a magazine with substance that is well-rounded. And yes, it might not be a job, but I've decided that I want to take this experience and make the most of it, taking from it whatever I can. And in this job market, I've realized that I should truly consider myself blessed.

I have a great career opportunity ahead of me, I live in an amazing apartment, and at the end of the day, although I might struggle a bit, and I might have down days, I know that I have the support of genuine friends and family. And that is something to truly be grateful for.

So this is the next chapter of my life -- the post-grad, maturing, growing up phase. Fresh out of my alma mater, moved into my first New York apartment, bright-eyed and discovering this city, this industry, and myself.

Life is, simply...good.

Vogue Italia: The Black (Barbie) Issue

Last year, Vogue Italia issues flew off the stands and the magazine gained national acclaim with their Black Issue, an issue dedicated to the black model, a fixture in the fashion world that is frequently neglected.

This summer, Vogue Italia is doing the Black Issue again, only with a slightly different twist: Black Barbie.

Bloggers and cynicals have been quick to criticize Vogue, claiming that they are just trying to milk the success that they had with last summer's Black issue, that they would have rather seen actual people instead of Barbie dolls, and that there shouldn't be a need for a "black issue" because black models should be included in every issue. But, the fact of the matter is black models AREN'T included in every issue, and in actuality, I think that since Vogue Italia's black issue last summer, black models have definitely been featured a lot more -- Chanel Iman is a centerfold regular these days. Regarldess, having a black issue in the first place brings light to the fact that we shouldn't need a black issue at all.

And yes, it would be nice to see actual models, but pairing it with the 50th anniversary of Barbie is brilliant and timely. A lot of people look at Barbie dolls as the frivolous plaything of young girls -- that what G.I. Joes and Matchbox Cars are to boys, Barbie is to girls. But I learned a lot about the history of Barbie and race relations across the world while working on this story, and I think recognizing Barbie in the world's most famous fashion magazine (not just Vogue, but Vogue Italia) will open people's eyes to the role that Barbie has played not only in the world of feminity and fashion (Barbie-themed show at fashion week, anyone?) but also, race. Moving past the original Barbie mold and giving multicultural girls around the world something to play with and relate to beyond the original fair-skinned, light-haired Barbie was a pivotal move by Mattel that was surrounded by controversy.

Anyway, regardless of opinion, I think the spread is creative and something fresh in the world of fashion magazines and one for the books for Vogue Italia. Here's a look at some of my favorites from the issue:

Travel Diaries: La Isla del encanto

Palm trees. Expensive cars. Slick new highways that cruise along the water. Tall, commercial hotel buildings looming over boardwalks and beaches. 

 

No, this isn't South Florida. This is Puerto Rico. 

 

Though the resemblance is uncanny, this is not Miami Beach, but perhaps a distant relative of the South Florida city.  This is the island of my ancestry, the island where my mother's family comes from. This is "la isla del encanto," or "the island of enchantment." This is the island of the oxymoron; of rainforests, Spanish language, homemade foods and a deep love for culture juxtaposed with commercialized roadways, non-Spanish speaking citizens, cruise ship shoppers, Burger Kings and a deep desire to be a part of the country that rules it.

 

This is Puerto Rico, the U.S.'s exotic stepdaughter. 

During the week I was in Puerto Rico as part of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference, apart from the work I did as a part of the Student Projects there, I got to observe the island. I was truly looking forward to exploring the island and its culture, seeing as it is a part of my heritage and a place I haven't visited since I was younger.

 

Just as I had remembered and imagined, the isla is vibrant, full of culture, bright colors and some of my favorite dishes like tostones, bistec encebollado and mafongo. Outside of San Juan, towns like Piñones and Bayamón still hold on to their own Puerto Rican charm. Merengue, salsa and reggaeton can be heard blasting out of windows and cars all over the island.

 

But in San Juan and Viejo San Juan, the city's capital and the old downtown district, the charm is mixed with that same South Florida commercialism, a mix that mirrors the citizens of the island's mixed feelings about the territorial status of their island.

 

Puerto Rican natives fight the U.S.'s wars. They pay Social Security and welfare and abide by the U.S.'s rules. Yet they don't vote in the U.S.'s elections and are often viewed by U.S. residents as foreigners, although they are citizens. And this hypocrisy is apparent in many of the people.

 

While doing an interview for a story I was working on about the genre of reggaeton music, a source interrupted me mid sentence and completely changed the subject.

 

"Is Obama going to make us a state like he promised?" the source asked in English, although the conversation had previously been in Spanish. A grown man, his eyes twinkled with the hopefulness of a child asking their mother to go to the toy store.

 

His girlfriend shook her head before I could respond, switching the conversation back to Spanish.

 

"No necesitamos los Estados Unidos" -- "We don't need the United States," she said bitterly, spitting the words "Estados Unidos". She continued on in Spanish. "If we become a state, we will lose everything that's important to us, and we'll become like like all those other states with no idea of what culture really means."

 

This brief conversation represents the split feelings of the island, which come to a head in its capital city filled with both pride and doubt. The same confusion and painful divide undoubtedly shared by many of the U.S.'s territories stuck in the limbo between Independence and statehood.  

Death of a King

The death of the King of Pop has sent the world into a whirlwind of mourning, celebration, sadness and reflection.

But aside from all of this, there are many out there who are exploiting Michael Jackson's death, just as they did his life when he was alive. Only now that he is no longer alive, they can do it more freely.

The man has barely been dead for four days and there are already talks of DVDs being released of his final concert rehearsal, the auctioning of his personal belongings and the publishing rights of unreleased songs he had made for his children.

One can argue that this is the price to pay of a celebrity. That once you are a celebrity, especially one of Michael Jackson's stature, privacy and the right to live and die in peace is no longer an option. And one can argue, there's not really a rule or a timeline for when it is acceptable to move on from tragedy, to move past the shock and the grief and resume every day life.

But I beg to differ. I've always disagreed with this kind of exploitation. It just doesn't sit well with me that a movie was released before the tears had dried of those who still hadn't come to terms with the events of 9/11, or that a major motion picture was released of a slain rapper whose murderer is still unknown, and now, that there is talk of how to make the most profit from a dead man's musical genius who hasn't even been properly laid to rest yet. In my opinion, it's disgusting and tragic, and an unfortunate reflection of our society.

----
Regardless, Michael Jackson holds a special place in my heart. His music was the soundtrack to my childhood, albums played nonstop in long car rides with my family. Dangerous was the first cassette tape I owned on my Playschool Walkman. I know there are millions out there who share my sentiments, who share their own memories of Michael and his music and who are shaking their heads at his tragic downfall. But from my little place in the world, I just want to put it out into the universe and say Rest in Peace, MJ. You will never be forgotten.

1958-2009

"Do you remember, back in the spring, every morning the birds would sing...do you remember, those special times, they just go on and on in the back of my mind..." - Do You Remember the Time

Travel Diaries: Keeping Austin Weird

Travel Diaries, Chapter One: Keeping Austin...Weird.

This summer began after bidding Adieu to State College and heading home for a week before making the big move to New York City. But in between home and the NYC move, I had to go to training for my summer internship at the University of Texas at Austin. Austin was, without a doubt, one of the most interesting cities I have visited. The word interesting is used with caution, here, because interesting could be taken in many ways.

To clarify: Austin's slogan is Keep Austin Weird. Yes, they take great pride in keeping the city weird. From the tie-dyed t-shirts boasting the slogan to rainbow-colored hair, undiscernable yet oddly artistic wall murals and tattoo sleeves on not just the majority of the men but the women as well, I believe weird is the perfect adjective for this city.

Prelude to the Travel Diaries

Summer thus far has consisted of traveling, traveling and more traveling. Between moving from college, going to Texas for my internship training, moving to New York for my internship and attending the National Association of Hispanic Journalism Conference in Puerto Rico, I'm all over. Although I'm not a huge fan of airports or planes, I do realize that I love to travel. This may be due to the fact that in the last 4-5 years for reasons that vary between journalism trips, sites as a part of my summer jobs with LeadAmerica, sorority conferences, family vacations, football games and others, I have been on the move quite a bit. Time spent in State College, D.C., San Diego, Atlanta, Miami, St. Maarten, Tampa, St. Croix, New Jersey, Orlando, Virginia, New York, Chicago, Mexico City, Harrisburg, Philly, Austin, Puerto Rico and my hometown of Ellicott City/Baltimore have given me a bit of a traveler's eye for observation and the ability to decide what I do and don't like about a city or place. And it is this that inspired me to begin a travel diary of some of my travels, commenting on the cities or countries to which I have already been or that I will visit in the future. Let the adventure begin....

Persistence: The Answer to Can'ts and Nevers

Persistence.

I don't know where it comes from, what exactly it is that drives me, where the fire in my belly derives. Maybe it's learning from the success of my doctor father or the inheritance of my mother's strength and stubbornness; maybe it's the astrology of being a Leo, a fire sign and one of the four fixed signs, or maybe I was simply born with big dreams and a big heart.

Whatever it is, in the last few years a yearning to succeed has pushed me to not accept "you can't" or "you'll never" as possibilities.

"You'll never stand out at a school as big as Penn State."

"You can't overcome the mistakes you've made." 

"You've always been quiet and shy...you'll never make it as a journalist!"

These are the doubts of people in my life that made persistence an everyday part of my vocabulary until I achieved the ultimate goal last Saturday: graduating with a college degree. 

Although I am now one of only 29% of Americans with a college degree, for a long time, the prospect of graduating from college didn't seem like that big of an accomplishment to me. I was raised in a household where going to college was expected. But all cockiness aside, after seeing how many of my peers will move on to fifth years and deferments and how many will never move on at all, I've come to be incredibly proud of not only my graduation, but all that I have achieved. 

Now, in the days between the end of the beginning of my life and the beginning of the rest of my life, I have been hit with more of those can'ts and nevers:

"You can't live in New York City as a recent graduate on a journalism salary."

"In this economy, you'll never find a job."

"You can't do what you really want to do coming out of college...sometimes you have to settle for other things and work your way up."

So now, with my MacBook, passion, persistence and writer's heart in tow, it's time to prove them wrong...once again.  

Life As A Make-Believe Foreign Correspondent

As part of an International Reporting course at Penn State, I recently had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The point of the class was to give students a taste of life as a foreign correspondent. Before arriving in Mexico, we had to choose a topic to report on in-depth. After researching Mexico City, I found that an interesting trend has been happening in Mexico City and Latin America over the years; historically, Catholicism has been virtually the only religion, but Evangelical Protestantism is steadily becoming more popular. This was the topic I chose for my in-depth story. We were also assigned to find a feature story to cover off he ground while we were in Mexico, and I ended up covering Mattel's 50th Anniversary Celebration for Barbie in Mexico City, which featured outfits designed for Barbie by famous Mexican designers.

Here are my experiences as a reporter in the city that truly instilled in me an even deeper passion for journalism and storytelling.

Day 1: Saturday

After a night of traveling in a van from State College to Newark Airport with no sleep and an almost 6-hour flight, my 16 classmates and I finally arrived to Mexico City, better known as D.F. – El Distrito Federal. As soon as we arrived, my exhaustion and weariness wore off as I was in awe of everything I saw. Driving through the city, it looked like nothing I had seen before – an urban city with overgrown palm trees and little purple flowers I would later learn are called Jacaranda flowers. The closer we got to the hotel, the more I felt like a little kid on their way to Disney World.

The Maria Cristina Hotel is a Spanish, colonial style hotel that somehow manifested a feeling of being at home. We began our evening with a reception with another group of communications students that were staying at the hotel from the University of North Carolina.

The Maria Cristina Hotel, where we stayed while in Mexico City

That night, we all went out to a club called Touché in the city. I was expecting Mexican nightlife to be a lot different from American nightlife, so I was surprised when we arrived to the club and they were playing a lot of American music – everything from Kanye West to Christina Aguilera. To my dismay, that changed after about an hour when they started playing Techno music for the rest of the night. Regardless, we had a great time dancing coupled with a few drinks called "Palomas," and finished our night by stopping at a taco stand by our hotel and eating one of the most delicious tacos I’ve ever had.