Season's Greetings

Happy holidays, friends. I miss you all.

New York, Oh New York

Well, if you guys haven't heard yet - yes, the MTA decided to strike. Luckily I can just walk to campus to take my finals, but I must say there was a lot of unnecessary traffic on the sidewalk. More taxis on the roads as well as bicycles (first time I ever saw the bike lane in use). Between this strike and the NYU grad student strike, this semester was all politics, incovenience and just noise! But I guess that's what New York is all about I guess.

On a lighter note, at 11 a.m. I officially finished my semester. I'm not going to lie; this semester was definitely a killer. With classes, SPIN and chair this Filipino organization, I thought I would lose it, but now I can go home to Jersey and relax for a few weeks.

SPIN was a lot of fun - definitely a lot more laid back than the Times-News. I'll definitely miss it. Next semester, I'll be interning at the Staten Island Advance. Ok, so the commute will suck, but I'll get to write more and of course the pay isn't too bad either. Hopefully I'll get some good clips out of there.

I'm still waiting on word about summer internships, but I'm thinking I may just go abroad this summer instead. For some reason, I'm craving a change of scenery, but we'll see about that.

Hope you all are doing well, and have a great holiday!

Notes from Suburbia

The semester finally ended, much to my relief. It was quite possibly the most challenging - not necessarily because the workload was any harder, but I could literally feel myself wear down.

My tumultuous career at the college paper as an editor closed as of Dec. 12. One of my columnists will be taking over the Opinions Desk...and I will write columns for him once a week. I expect to do some page design, as well.

It feels bittersweet, considering the fact that I've bothered to apply for the Editor in Chief position for two semesters in a row (Spring 2005, Fall 2005). I honestly don't understand why I didn't get the job the second time around, but I think I am actually glad that I did not. Things deteriorated to a point where I actually walked out of the newsroom while I was designing pages to help out with a supplement. It is no longer a place I enjoy working at.

I will be working, instead, as the flak for the student government. All the "you've joined the dark side" jokes aside, I think it'll be a different experience. I won't be paid, but I think I will at least get something out of the job, as opposed to any editorship at the paper at this point.

I've been turned down by the Globe and WSJ. I can't say that I'm surprised. The Globe sent me a nice e-mail about how they want to track my progress, however, so that was a plus. Now just waiting on the Post Dispatch, Journal-Sentinel and the Chicago Tribune. I don't expect much from the Tribune, so it's just a waiting game at this point. Hopefully I'll have a place to work at in the summer.

I'll go forwards, you go backwards, somewhere we will meet...

No, this isn't some optical illusion - I am actually posting to our blog. I'll own up to the fact right here and now that I have done a piss poor job of posting and/or keeping in touch in general. I all too often get trapped in my little bubble of school and the paper and forget that anything outside exists. But now that we are in the middle of another exciting internship season, my little bubble burst and I found myself unable to stoping wondering what my fellow DJNF alums are up to. It seems from the posts that I've read that everyone is doing well, keeping their heads up and praying that the internship gods will look kindly upon them. You all are some of the most talented and committed journalists I've met, so I've no doubt you'll end up with glorious positions. As for myself, I officially accepted an internship position with Bloomberg yesterday. It was one the hardest desicions I've made in a long time, but I think I made the right one. I think Bloomberg will give me the foundation I need to be a great business journalist, and though the hours are going to be long and my readers will primarily be investors and not the general public journalism serves, I still think it will be really great starting place. So that's the big news in the life of Millie these days and pretty much all I've got. I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing where you all end up - and knowing how small this journalism world really is, here's hoping to working with you again someday.

Shrug

So I didn't make it past the first round of the Hearst photojournalism competition. I don't really feel to bad. I owned up and submitted, which I'm pretty proud of.

What's everyone doing for Christmas?