Options Split Even

What do you do when you walk down a path and you reach a point where it splits in two directions and you don't know which direction to take because neither is great and neither is worse? It probably, and actually, doesn't really matter. Just flip a coin and take a pick, right? I would think so, at least.

With out doubt, every single person in this world, has felt this way numerous amounts of times, including myself. This is THE point where my life has currently been standing.

Let me explain:

After a long summer of submitting resumes online and contacting people with possible job opportunities for me, I got nothing. I felt miserable, agonized, but most painful of all, unproductive. It truly felt as if I had reached an all-time low mark in my life. You see, for the most part, I'm the kind of person who likes to work hard and stay busy. That's how the world becomes a better place: by serving others through our chosen occupations, love and work. I wasn't doing any of this. Instead, I felt as though my brain cells were wasting away looking at a computer screen submitting resumes in human recourse data bases that were more likely never be read by an actual human being. I hated myself for not having succeeded in landing a job following college. Even after earning my way through a bachelors degree, I didn't feel proud of myself in any way, and I honestly still don't (but that's not the point). Finally after weeks of looking and searching for possible opportunities, the idea of moving to NYC to find fresh open doors popped into my head. I thought about it, prayed about it, but felt prompted to stay where I was; I remained a little more patient.

Within days, I ran into a good man who I knew from the Telemundo station I interned before in Phoenix. He was now the Spanish radio announcer for the AZ D-backs. He mentioned he was looking for an intern to help with a new, community oriented Spanish show they were getting ready to launch. I quickly found myself being interviewed and working for a crazy Middle-Eastern man who was the owner of this new show. To make a long story short, I felt the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what the average content person would feel in regards to their new job. I realized the best move I could take was quit, and so I did. Days Later, I found myself back to square one, looking for jobs on all online career databases I could find. All I could think about was a certain comment a particular someone told me that was hurtful, but true to an extent. It was: "So you graduated college, what good is that if no one will hire you? What are you worth? Nothing! You're worth nothing. NO one will hire you. You're still dumb as a box of rocks." What do you do when you get these words splattered in your face? In my case, I cried, BUT, then I decided to prove them wrong and take action into my own hands.

I decided to reconsider my previous plans of heading out to NYC. I prayed about it, once again. This time, I felt okay about moving out in that direction. I contacted a couple sources to help me land some interviews in the Big Apple, found a roommate, and bought a one-way ticket to NYC all in just about 24 hours. I was excited and ready to go. However, little did I realize how different my plans would turn out to be.

I spent just about every single day over the first couple weeks personally delivering resumes and locating resources that could help me in my journey to landing a journalism job. I had no luck, so I decided that what I could do in the mean time was take a part-time job to help pay my rent. I received an offer to work as a sales associate at the Hershey's store in Time Square for 10 dollars an hour and took the job. This turned out to be a bad idea since all I was doing was nothing but working and coming home to sleep. I was so tired I wasn't focusing anymore on the real reason I came out to NY. In the best of my interests I decided to leave the job... funny how deja-vous works... I came back to square one, AGAIN.

Third cycle around, I got back on track, looking for that real entry-level career spot I came to find. Like many people suggested, I made a few call backs to previous positions I had already applied for to check where in the process my applications might be. Also, to empahsize of my active interest in the position. I got nothing. Then one afternoon, I remembered about a former open reporting spot MCTV, a local station for Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona, had. I looked on their website and reapplied. To sum things up, I received a call from the director, who was delighted about having me join the crew. Only down part to this reporting position was that it was starting at only 15 hours of work per week.

Since that moment I have found myself undecisive and under severe amounts of stress as to whether I should take this spot or wait for something else to come. I've concluded that overall it doesn't matter if I take it or not. There are equal amounts of weights on each side of the scale: If I don't, it would be fine because sooner or later I would be bound to have something else turn out. The only question would be: When? If I were to take this offer, it would be marvelous because I would finally be starting to work in on-air reporting. The down part to this: It would only be 15 hours per week, not enough working time!! (Plus the drag of moving back home and being maintained by the family when I should be capable of doing so myself.)

I realized that though decisions such as these really might not make a difference in the long end, they can be so effective in the shorter one, which makes it extremely difficult to decide on. After much praying and more praying to my Heavenly Father who knows everything, I drew my decision on making my way back home and taking this small, but amazing job offer with great dignity.

It's the attitude and dedication we put forth which will bring us blessings in future moments to come.

Have Lemons? Make Lemonade!

Finding a job in NYC has definitely been hard, and it seems like it's only gonna get tougher. Is it depressing for me? You can bet it is! I have days where I am so full of energy, with an optimistic attitude, and then I have sudden moments where I just have breakdowns. My lovely new friend Danielle  calls them: "I hate New York days." We randomly became great friends after we both moved to NYC at the same time, for the same reasons, and met at the LDS employment center.  We have kept each other going in our ups and downs.

As a way to forget about my problems, stress and worries, I decided that at least once a week I would go explore a random part of NYC I hadn't already seen. So far, it has been immensely entertaining since everything out in NYC is a first for me. I had never been here before and to suddenly take a chance and move out here has truly become an adventure for me. I've seen almost everything by now: Times Square, The Naked Cowboy, 9/11 memorial site, Rockefeller Plaza, Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park. Of course, there are still many things I have yet to see, such as the Statue of Liberty. However, I am a very poor college graduate out in the wild trying to land my first broadcast journalism job, so everything that requires no payment or fee is what I plan on enjoying before I hit the 20 dollar ticket to see the top of The Rock at the NBC tower.

Tonight, as part of one of my adventures, I decided to call one of my other new friends, Jon, and go sight  seeing around the city. First we, thought about going to the movies, but then I remembered it would cost me 12 bucks, money I could definitely save for my next grocery bill. I decided to skip the idea and head out to Jon's instead where we could figure out what to do. Once I was over at his place, we then thought it would be so fun to go to F A O Schwarz, NYC's amazing toy store that reminded me of the movie Home Alone 2. The idea also quickly died when we realized it closed at 8:00p and the time was 7:45p. Jon and I ended up going to 42nd street, the Times Square area, where we walked all the way up to about 59th street (just before hitting Central Park) and then all the way back down to 47th street. Throughout this walk, we managed to find a bunch of super amazing stores (Gucci! Prada! Armani! Versace! Apple! All in my opinion of course), then break my one and only camera (so sad!), and get lost looking for a Wendy's that ended up closing three hours before we got there. To sum things up, we settled for a chocolate shake and fries at the Mcdonalds across the street from the Wendy's it took us forever to find, and finally headed back home on the subway.

The good thing about my broken camera, however, was that I did manage to get very the small amount of pictures we took tonight onto my computer, which was something I though might not work out. Below is a picture Jon took of me while I was sitting on the fountains of the FOX tower (I think it was), in front of Radio City. It was his idea to get a shot of this background and I loved it!

My overall lesson from worrying too much about the negatives: always look at the bright side of everything. Something good will always come out of something bad.

Columbia University

On the lucky 09/09/09 day I decided to explore Columbia University's campus. I had actually jogged through it the night before and was so amazed by it that it left me with nothing but the "awe" sensation of it's beauty. I was dying to come back, and so I did. In my opinion, there aren't many more campuses nicer than Columbia's.

The first picture here is of the Low Memorial Library, which was finished in 1897 and served as the main library until 1934, according to Columbia's virtual campus tour website. It seemed to be a favorite spot for students to relax around and enjoy a nice moment of reading. I know it would definitely be mine! The campus tour website also indicates that today it serves as the university's administrative center and is the office to the university's President and Provost. 

To the right is Butler Library, where one of the tenth largest library systems in the nations is located, according to Columbia's tour website. You can definitely see the greek architecture it has with the columns. I love it. This library was built in 1934. It has the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which contains more than 600,000 rare books and 26 million manuscripts, also says the web-based tour website. I didn't go inside to see it for myself though. Maybe, I could make that a next adventure.

  

It was the seconded day of classes in the fall semester and where else to find crowds of students than College Walk. On the picture to the left is this well polished walk way that is located dead center of the main campus. If you walk through it you will basically be getting an all-rounded view of the main buildings on campus. They all encircle this passage way. It's the school radius, one could say. 

Lastly, after having walked through this wonderful place, I had one thing left to do: see the Journalism Building. It was truly all I had eyes for.


Unfortunately, for me, I didn't take a picture of it, don't ask why because I, myself, am not sure. It could have been that I was lost within myself from the splendors of it that I just didn't think to do it. The good thing, though, was on my way out when I took my all-time favorite picture of the word that calls my attention like a birthday cake to a kid. See it below for yourself!

Jones' Beach in New York

Jones Beach: Wantagh, New York

With the economy at its worst since the Great Depression, it appeared that many tourists and New York residents left their worries aside to enjoy Labor Day weekend at the beach. I was just another attendee among thousands of people that relaxed and enjoyed the cool waters Jones Beach had to offer. To my surprise, this was one of the cleanest, most organized beaches I had ever seen. The staff members knew their drill! Apparently, not even heavy amounts of traffic could break them in. They were well prepared. As for the attendants, it was all about escaping stress to have some family fun.

It's all about the setup

Part of the main key to making a day at the beach a success is always the setup. Things, such as the beach towels, umbrellas, potato salad and Fresca were essential in our trip to the beach. This picture with the green and white umbrella was our lovely spot we made. Isn't it great?! With the clouds over head and the sun at just the right angle, my 30 minute nap out here couldn't have been any better. I know my roommate definitely enjoyed hers!

Nothing like digging holes for that sand castle

Among my favorite things to watch out at the beach are children. Sure enough, I had kids, like this cute little boy, surrounding us and even throwing sand in our nice little spot to get to down to the end of whatever it was they were digging. Some even threw balls at my roommates and me while we tried to nap in the sun, oh boy, but I love them anyways.

Beautiful Sunset

Lastly, but definitely the best part was the sun setting down. Our day at the beach ended with the stunning sunset as we walked back to the car and headed back home to good old Harlem.

New York City

New York City: The Media Capital of the world and here I am.

I've wanted to come here my entire life (well really since my senior year in high school when I decided to pursue broadcasting as a career). Finally, I find myself right where I have wanted to be for so long. I don't think I've ever seen so much diversity and so much tourism. It's immense. There's no way anyone could ever possibly be bored in the Big Apple. There's dining from every kind of restaurant imaginable. Entertainment ranges from clubs to theaters, shopping and just good old hanging out with friends. All I have to do now is go out there and find me buddies to explore with.

Today, as part of my adventure in the job searching field, I decided to personally deliver a couple resumes to the Telemundo and Univision studios. Unfortunately for me, it didn't go as planned. I spent about 40 mins locating the Univision station only to find out I located their business offices and not broadcasting location. The good thing, however, was the nice guard at reception who called the Univision offices and helped me locate the correct address. He was such a pleasant person and made me feel better even though he didn't know it. The dreadful part, though, was yet to come.

I took on my next errand to find the Telemundo station in NYC so I could also drop off my resume. Sure enough, I found Rockefeller Plaza fast and easy. I walked in to ask the security guard at reception how to locate the Telemundo studio in the building. I was told to provide the name of the person I was looking for before I could be let in. Well since I wasn't looking for anyone in particular and only knew it was the news director I wanted to see, I started trying make an effort and remember what his name was from the previous year I had randomly met him at a NAHJ/UNITY event. I stood there for a good 20 mins attempting to figure it out on my envy touch and it was worth it because I located his name thanks to Google. I told the guard his name only to have her tell me he was no longer in that building and they had moved the studio to 135 Madison Ave. Well things only got worse from there.

I started on my next search to find this new location. I walked to Madison Ave and realized I was in the 400's. This was a long way from the 135's, so I decided to take the subway and head south for a couple stops. I was a little lost for a while, but finally found the nearest sub train, got on it and got off at 25th st where I thought the 130's would be (this whole procedure took me 40 mins, so you could imagine how tired I was from walking). Finally, after nearly an hour of trying to find this place, I located it. To my unwanted surprise, it turned out that 135 Madison Ave was a stupid old carpet store and hotel. I don't even think they were in business!! I was so mad at the security guard from the Rockefeller Plaza I wanted to go back and yell at her. I gave up searching for the day, went to my favorite spot at Times Square where this picture is, sat for a while to relax, and started my journey back to my new home in Harlem where my nice comfy bed awaited for me to take a nap.

Day over!

My Very First Post

Hello there,

It's late Tuesday night and I sit here writing on my very first blog post. I'm not sure if I am doing this right, but I guess we'll see how it all turns out.

To the left is me! Here, I am in Puerto Rico. I'm really behind no spectacular scenery that shouts "Puerto Rico" or anything, but I sure like the shirt I'm wearing. It says, "Yo amo a Univision." I'm all about broadcast networks. Give me a t-shirt with any TV network and I'll proudly sport it.

Well it's right about half way through the summer, here in AZ. Monsoon season has kicked off, but I sure haven't. I sit here, being a college graduate and with no real direction of where life may lead to next. I do know that I plan to steer in the broadcasting field, my life passion. That's why I live, you know. I believe people have special missions to do here on earth. My mission is journalism, broadcast journalism.

Want to know an ironic secret behind my passion? I get deathly terrified and nervous in front of a camera. Why? I blame my mother's genes(but I can only do so much blaming on the genes). Unfortunately, for me, I am a horribly anxious and nerve wrecking person. I easily get nervous about anything and for hardly any reason at all most of the time. Now, what I must do: either let my nerves take over my life, or, have my life take over my nerves. It's tuff, but I must do it. I can't let me dream life be ruined because of my anxiety, not with out a fight!

For the moment I will leave it at that. Viva my very first blog post!