In A New York State of Mind

By Natalie Cioffari

Editor-In-Chief 

Running up and down the stairs of the platform, I sprint to the ticket booth at Fairfield Metro train station. I frantically punch in my information as I hear the sound of the train coming. No, I do not want my receipt, who the heck wants their ticket receipt?

My ticket prints, I grab my belongings, aka my Dunkin coffee and my oversized bag of lord only knows what, and I hop on the train with second to spare. With a deep breath and a sigh of relief, I make my way into New York City.

This is what my life was like for almost a year while being an intern at MTV Networks and WABC7-NY.

If you were to tell ‘high school senior Natalie’ that she would have the possibility to obtain an internship at places like MTV and the ABC Network, she would have laughed in your face and went about her business. If you were to also tell ‘high school senior Natalie’ how much she loved every second of waking up at 5:30 a.m, sleeping on the train ride in and out of Grand Central Station and walking the streets of New York to get to her internships, she would have chuckled at you.

Yet, now ‘college senior Natalie’ can’t help but think about the amazing opportunities that New York has presented to her. To be honest, she misses it so much.

Every time I arrived at Grand Central, whether it was zero degrees and I was bundled head to toe, or eighty degrees and I was wearing a business casual dress, it gave me this feeling of hope and happiness, that someday I could be doing this for the rest of my life. Even walking out of station and into the streets of New York made me beam from ear to ear.

There is just something spectacular about that city that is indescribable to one who has never experienced it.

It gave me a sense of independence and it allowed me to experience New York all on my own. This also included me figuring out what subway to take and praying to God that I got on the right one in the right direction. There were plenty of times that I took the earlier train to make sure I got that down solid.

Interning in the city at MTV Networks and WABC7-NY also allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people that I still keep in contact with to this day.

Now, as I sit here at the head Spectrum computer, I become very nostalgic of my time as an intern. Do not get me wrong, I absolutely love giving all of my time and effort to the newspaper, but traveling into New York is something that I will miss having in my weekly schedule.

I wish I could explain to all of you how much this journey meant to me. I hope that as you are reading this, you too may realize that you can have the same opportunities with a hard work ethic and a drive to pursue your dreams, no matter how big they are. Do not let the stress of traveling in a big city scare you from what may be some of the greatest weeks of your college career.

Oh, and you best believe that I listened to Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” plenty of times.

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