Losing One of My Classmates

The past two days have been some of the toughest that I've had in a long time. One of my friends from Syracuse, Alex Taft, was killed in a car accident Wednesday night outside of Denver. I received a call about his death when I was at my internship, but I had my phone on silent at the time. Unfortunately, I learned about what happened through a voicemail message.

Alex was a really cool guy. We were in the same master's program, and we took classes together ever since bootcamp last summer. This semester, I helped him on a show that he created called "Bill Wilkins: Confidential" because I knew that working with him again would be a wonderful experience. Alex was very kind and creative, and I was really looking forward to him moving to LA in a few weeks.

If you want to check out Alex's comedy series, it is on YouTube. I wish that I was still in Syracuse to mourn his death with some of my classmates, but I just have to do what I can in LA.

Starting My Internship

This week, I entered the final part of my master's program, which is a summer internship at NBC Universal. I wish that I could make it sound more interesting than it is, but I have mainly been just finding newspaper and magazine articles about NBC and moving publicity files out of storage. I'm not all that surprised about my duties, however, I am looking forward to being assigned to some of the publicists in a couple of days.

I thought that my family was buying a car for me last weekend. After going to a few car dealerships, my sister decided that I should just take the bus until I get a job. That wouldn't be such a bad thing, except for the fact that I have a four-hour commute everyday that I go in.

My first day was Monday. I met some of the staff in the publicity department and went to an intern orientation that afternoon. There is a studio right next to my office building where "The Tonight Show," "Days of Our Lives," "Access Hollywood," and "The Ellen Degeneres Show" are filmed.

One cool thing that I found out is that the musical guests on "The Tonight Show" have an outdoor concert right next to my building on Wednesday afternoons. This week, I watched Al Green perform a song from his new CD. If I'm lucky, I will get to be one of the interns that helps on the next "Days of Our Lives" promo shoot. I was a big fan of that show when I was an undergrad, so I hope that I'm chosen.

Most weeks, I will only work from Tuesday-Thursday, and I am looking for a part-time job where I can work on some of the other days. The interns do not have to work everyday because the publicity department has several of us this summer. There is an intern from Little Rock, Arkansas, who works everyday, and I have enjoyed talking to her about different locations back home.

No matter what I have to do for my internship, I could not be any happier. I have dreamed about working for NBC for a long time, and I hope that I will be asked to stay there as an employee after this summer is over.

Graduation and Moving to LA

This past week has been one of the busiest of my life. My mom, oldest sister, and my niece came to Syracuse to watch me graduate on Saturday. I participated in the commencement for my specific school, Newhouse. Some of my cousins from Buffalo drove down to see me that day, too. Most of the speeches were boring, but this one advertising graduate student gave a really funny speech. Now I feel bad that I didn't vote for him to begin with.

I came back later to watch part of the graduation for the school of visual and performing arts because Vanessa Williams finally received her bachelor's degree from the school. Her speech was all about herself and how she overcame the scandal after winning Miss America.

I couldn't fully enjoy graduation weekend because I was too busy packing up to move to LA. My immediate family stayed until Monday, and each of them took two bags full of my things in them. A few people asked me whether I would miss Syracuse. I always gave them a loud and excited "no."

During graduation weekend, I was also trying to finish up some work for my job. I thought that I would be done with everything on Friday, but it is pretty hard to get things done with a six-year-old running around. After I took my comprehensive final last Wednesday, I had to take a few days off to mentally recuperate.

I few to LA on Wednesday of this week. It wasn't the most enjoyable flight since I had to make a layover in Detroit and could not go to sleep on the first leg of the trip. I'm living with my sister, Nikki, until I get a job somewhere. I wish that I could tell you that I have been going to wild parties for the past two nights, but I have been playing babysitter to my niece instead.

On Monday, I'm starting my internship at NBC. I hope that this publicity internship will help lead to a job in another flashy field. I will not officially graduate until I finish this summer course, so I will try to take it pretty seriously. Anyway, I should stop writing so that I can learn a little bit more about NBC (by watching Conan).

Finishing Grad School

Today was the big day (not my graduation, that will be on Saturday). One of the last requirements of my graduate program is taking a comprehensive final. All of the students in my program have been dreading this day, but it's finally over. There is only question on the exam, but this is out of a list of 10 questions. Luckily, I got a question that I spent a lot of time studying for yesterday.

I feel so good now. I've been looking forward to graduation, but I could not fully enjoy it until now because I have been studying so hard. My mom and my older sister are flying to Syracuse to see me. This will be really fun because I haven't seen any of them since January. I'm moving to LA next Wednesday so that I can get ready to start my internship the next week.

I have had a lot of good memories in Syracuse this past year. I learned how to walk to class everyday during the winter months through inches of snow (a story that I'm sure I'll tell my grandkids someday). I also became friends with several people in my program, and a lot of us are moving to LA this summer.

I'll check back in after graduation.