Monday, January 14, 2008

I took a bite out of the Big Apple and now I'm addicted


I'm down to my last two days at Redbook. (Insert big sad face here.) I leave Thursday for the flat land and I think I might cry upon leaving New York. I have had many interesting experiences in my two week stay. Not all completely positive, but all have been interesting. There was the chick fight in Chinatown, my first Broadway show, judging the nation's hottest husbands with Redbook's editorial team, eating dried rose petals in the Lower East Side, getting schooled on makeup knowledge by a guy in Sephora and exploring Times Square all by my lonesome, just to name a few.

Redbook has been a great learning experience. However, not in the way that I expected at all. Most of the work I did included making copies of past articles, printing out the hot husband pictures and answering crazy fan mail. So most of my learning was from my surroundings. The busy grind that was all around showed me just how a major consumer magazine operates. It takes a huge number of people and each person's job is incredibly specialized and changes issue to issue. Their jobs couldn't possibly be boring. One week they are researching how to grow seedlings in your kitchen and the next, what body shimmer makes you look the best while naked. Even though I didn't do much or any journalistic work, I listened intently to phone interviews and directions from editors to assistants. Everyone was very nice and eager to find out why the heck a girl from Kansas wound up in New York.

The most important thing that I learned while here is that this is my comfort zone. I like working with articulate fashion-loving, beauty product-seeking women that love their jobs. I like not driving to work even if it means taking a subway that reeks of urine. I love that I can walk a block and have a pharmacy, market and clothing store all within my reach. I love New York and (pardon the cliche) I want to be a part of it.

1 comment:

Brad Farless said...

Hi hi. Finally looked at your profile and saw this blog. I know this is really late... like two years late... but glad you enjoyed your stay in NYC. My mom and her side of the family live there so I go there to visit quite a bit. I lived there for a while too. I miss NYC! I'll get back to it one day.