July 20th, 2014. How did that happen? It’s been a whole three months of not worrying about an overbearing amount of classwork or how many print credits you have left on your student account. (Thank you, Trumper.) If you’re like me in any capacity, while the May flowers were blooming, you made a mental note of all you wanted to accomplish this summer. (i.e…which specific spots you wanted to take pictures of in Greece…where the perfect pizza place in NYC is…who you were going to drag to the beach with you in between adventures…you know, that sort of thing.) Not only had it been my goal to have a full, fun, enriched, and productive summer, but I was also determined to make time for the incredibly important things (such as peacefully writing in my journal every day with a cup of green tea by my side on a pretty, floral saucer) that made me so happy and relaxed during the school year. Well…that didn’t go exactly as planned.
I was not expecting that after traveling around and power-studying in Greece for 10 days, meeting and spending time with new people at home, and living in Manhattan for just 3 weeks, the most important thing I would learn is that experiences are everything. Really I thought my biggest takeaway was going to be just how yummy Tzatziki sauce is…
I soaked in as much as I could and barely had time to fill up my water bottle, let alone find a pretty saucer and a calm cup of tea. However, I made it a priority to document my life at some moment of every day…and I am so thrilled I did.
While I successfully accomplished everything I desired for the time between Fisher Regatta and now, my heart and mind are never fully fulfilled until I have all my writing organized and published. I have been so busy immersing myself in all that was Greece, New York, and home that I haven’t had the chance to share it with anyone, let alone even had the urge to make time to catch up on the last three episodes of The Bachelorette…(and the finale is right around the corner!)
My journal has been fully comprised of receipts, tags, and other paper memorabilia from my adventures, but the most important part of it all are the words written (sloppily) on the pages. The words that I scribbled down quickly that are mostly irrelevant for the common reader…the words that remind me what I did and what I was thinking when I took a tumble on 34th street because I was trying to avoid an angry taxi driver…the words describing my excitement when I purchased my “campus cutie” tank top at the Her Campus conference…the words that will be telling of how achy my knees were after my 23-mile run (yes, I took breaks) through all of Central Park while Phillip Phillip’s “Home” in my earbuds made me nostalgic…the words that will eventually end up on Her Campus…but not yet, because I can barely find the time to type this little bit up.
I have a couple days left in NYC and I have taken even the smallest of details into account and I’ll always remember them; because I wrote them down. It wasn’t the fear of forgetting that kept me going, rather, it was the fear of not being able to tell the story the way I saw fit. So I wrote nothing. As an assistant intern for the most fabulous author around, I have been nothing but inspired during my time in the city. It may seem hypocritical for me to have not written a single article in three weeks for the chapter of which I am in co-charge of, but I simply could not rise to the writing status I wanted while living in the city that never sleeps. (Even though I had an enforced curfew…details on that later…)
Personal writing took up the parts of my mind that are usually trying to transform my thoughts into words for readers…and most of it was transcribed in the notes section of my iPhone. The tricky thing was my thinking that if I’m in a wonderful city where (cheesy line but bear with me) an every day person’s dreams turn into realities, why on earth would I want to spend my free time writing it all down? Two reasons…1) it takes three seconds to write down a blurb that will help me remember something in the future and 2) what else was I to do on a weekday night past 11:30? To be honest, I mostly slept…
When I fly home, I’ll be thankful for whatever seat is granted to my standby self, (though I was lucky enough to score a first class seat on the way over) looking out the window in awe of the summer I have had and the inspiration I have received from my incredible (but way too short) internship. More than likely, I’ll also be discretely holding onto a rosary every moment the 737 bumps around in the air. (Some things you just never can get over…)
The next time I write a Her Campus article, I’ll be back in Florida, probably doing one of three things: A) cuddling my Bichon B) sipping sweet tea on the New Smyrna Beach shoreline, or C) transferring my horrible handwriting into a typed format suitable for the online world. Then is when I’ll be telling of the old man who always sat in the upper left corner of Saint Pat’s Cathedral (horribly) singing his heart out, the born n’ raised New Yorker M11 bus driver who came to know my name, and the sweet, delightful nuns who asked me every evening in their best English, “you have boyfriend?” ………………
New York City, I’ll miss ya but right now I have to leave NYPL and get back home before they lock me out so sayonara, laptop.
Photos provided by the author
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