FRIDAY
I'm a little behind on posting, but I'll pick up where I last left off. By day three I was totally comfortable with the whole New York scene. I never ever thought I'd say this, but it's become one of my favorite cities, and part of me doesn't want to leave. I don't want to go back to the suburbs where it seems that everyone is sunk into the monotony of every day life. New Yorkers have so much drive and ambition that you can't help but let it inspire you. This is the city where people are getting shit done, and knowing that I would totally be able to keep up with it gives me a major confidence boost.
I slept in yesterday morning, so I didn't have time to do much before my first session of the day. A couple of the other girls and I went to a session called "Take One for the Team: Test Your Personality." I'm all over personality tests because every time I take one I learn something new about myself. I may have touched on this before, but I strongly identify with being a Gemini. In a nutshell, Gemini is the twin sign of the zodiac that represents duality. We are open communicators who can view situations from multiple angles and empathize with those around us. We are also very curious by nature and strongly rely on intelligence to solve puzzles. It was really interesting to see where these traits fell within the results of the personality test.
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The session I went to discussed how personality traits affect group dynamics, and it was so fascinating. Our speaker had everyone take the True Colors Personality Test. It was broken into four color categories; orange, green, gold and blue. Whichever category you tallied the most points in based on your answers to personal questions, that was your "true color." The idea is that each person is a collection of all of the colors which creates a nice spectrum, but there is one color that dominates. For me, it was blue. This is the emotion-based color. I actually scored 50/50 in this category. Check out the grid on the side and see what color traits fit you best.
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I also scored pretty high in gold and green, and orange wasn’t far behind. In the session we talked about how when you work with a team, it’s important to have someone who is dominant in each color so that you have a broad spectrum of strengths. I’m excited to bring this back to The Sentinel’s newsroom and see how we can look at our group dynamic from a new angle.
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The next session I went to was an editorial cartoonist panel. It was really awesome to hear from extremely talented artists such as Daryl Cagle, Steve Sack, Adam Zyglis and Taylor Jones. Our paper often incorporates editorial cartoons into the opinion section because they’re a big hit with students. The presenters discussed how people’s views on editorial cartoons has changed over time. They also discussed the process of conceptualizing and drawing the cartoons, as well as the challenges and dangers associated with it. There were a lot of powerful cartoons discussed and I really enjoyed hearing the artists’ thoughts about their work.
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There were several other afternoon sessions that interested me. One was called “Color the Gray” which focused on how newspaper designers can transform seemingly uninteresting body copy into visual elements that will draw attention and create interest. Another session was “From Passion to Profession: Turn Your College Media Experience into a Job.” This was led by a woman who works on the production team for Dora the Explorer at Nickelodeon. She never expected to go the animated children’s TV route, but it came about after she found an internship with Nickelodeon through media boot camp group called IRTS. Overall, the whole convention has been really cool and I’m so happy with all of the sessions I’ve gone to. I learned a lot that I’m taking back to the office with me, and a lot of things that apply to my personal career too.
Brittany and I finished the day earlier than the rest of our group, so we decided to do a little adventuring. The first thing you must know about Brittany and I, is we spend like 40% of our conversations quoting TV shows and stand up comedians. We love Seinfeld, and one of the most popular episodes features the infamous Soup Nazi. If you've seen the episode, you know that this must be the best dang soup in the city, and the place was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was an extra chilly day, so we couldn't think of a better way to spend the afternoon. We followed The Soupman's protocol and each got a large order of soup. I got the lobster bisque, of course. We strolled around the corner and noticed Central Park was just a couple blocks down, so we went to find a nice spot to relax and eat. It was our first time checking out the park, so we made a point to soak up the culture, art and atmosphere.
Even though the temperature has been above freezing, there is still snow on the ground in Central Park. I think it’s because the skyscrapers shade a huge area of the park from the sun, so it doesn’t melt as quickly. Either way, it was beautiful to see. We walked back to our hotel to meet up with the rest of the group, but decided to go a different route that we hadn’t seen yet. We ended up walking down 6th Avenue, and halfway through I realized that we were on the same street as Rolling Stone’s headquarters. Needless to say, I was excited beyond belief to even look at the building where my favorite publication is created.
We met back up with our group and decided to head back to Central Park and venture a little deeper into it. We had a really fun time, and I’m so glad that everyone in our group clicked really well. In the park there are these huge boulders, so we spent some time climbing on them and, of course, taking some group selfies. The NY skyline is immaculate, and we were able to get a great view.
After that, we wandered over to an area called Strawberry Fields which is dedicated to John Lennon. There are plenty of benches where you can sit and reflect and just appreciate all of the poetry and philosophies that Lennon brought to the world. There is also a beautiful mosaic in the sidewalk with the word “Imagine” in the center. People leave roses in remembrance. This part of the trip truly touched me. There are so many ways this world could be a better place and it begins with imagining that it is possible. Everything begins with imagining and believing that it can become truth.
After our park adventure, we met up with our awesome advisers to go grab dinner. We decided to take the subway downtown to Little Italy. If you didn't know already, Italian is my all-time favorite type of food, so I was ecstatic to go and eat some authentic Italian food. After walking around a little, we found a place called Paesano’s. We could smell the garlic bread from the sidewalk, so we knew we had found a good place. I had a caesar salad and the creamiest, most delicious chicken carbonara I’ve ever had. We spent our last meal out as a group with plenty of laughter and story telling. I’m so happy I got to know some of my fellow student media nerds better while on this trip.
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We were too full for dessert, so instead I talked the group into going on a little adventure I had been looking forward to since I found out we were coming to New York. Quick backstory; Led Zeppelin is my favorite classic rock band. I don’t know what it is about their electric and heavy vibe that just gets me rocking out every time. 40 years ago, the band released, arguably, their most popular album Physical Graffiti. It turns out that the artwork for the album cover was photographed in New York city and it wasn’t a far walk from Little Italy. So we set out in search of the building. After trekking through the middle of Chinatown, (Sort of on accident. Someone in our group said that it isn’t the safest area late at night, but we were totally fine and I loved looking at all of the street signs!) we ended up finding the spot, and it was nothing short of breathtaking.
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It looks a lot different than it did when the original photo was taken, but I had to take a moment to really let it sink in. Also, the original building has five stories but on the LP there are only four. The artist decided to crop out one of the floors so that he could fit the building on a square LP cover. I love music landmarks like that, and I’m so lucky to have experienced this. We hung out and listened to Kashmir while reading up on why this spot was chosen for the album and it was just one of the greatest things I did the whole trip.
After that, the group decided we were all pretty exhausted so we decided to call it a night. We walked through the village to get back to the subway. NYU is close to this area, so the streets were full of college aged people all strolling around and having a good Friday night. Again, I loved this part of town and found myself walking a little bit slower so that I could enjoy it for as long as possible.
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Once we got back near the hotel, Brittany and I wanted to go to a diner we’d had our eyes on for the past couple days. Mainly because of the big neon sign that said “Cheesecake” on it. So far on the trip we had pizza and bagels, it just didn’t feel right to leave New York without getting some cheesecake. There were tons of choices, but we went with our instincts and got a slice of Oreo cheesecake. Oh boy was it heavenly. I’ll spare you all of the decadent details because unless you can go out and get a piece for yourself, its just unfair to brag about.
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This trip has been incredible so far. I’ve crossed off all but one of my list of things to do in New York, so check back for my post on how I spent my last day in the city!
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