Going to George Mason University is pretty darn cool. But, when I first signed up back in January of 2008 I was full of resentment; I hated that I was commuting, I hated that my parents chose the school and not I (good decision though) and I hated GMU because a lot of Northern Virginians hated it.
Northern Virginian has a love/hate relationship with GMU, in my opinion. It’s awesome having such a good school in your backyard, but at the same time, it’s your backyard and anything in your backyard can’t be that good, right? When I was in high school I was consistently put down for going to Mason, why would I want to stay here? Well, I didn’t. I just didn’t have a choice. But at the same time, I didn’t want to leave just for the sake of leaving, like many of my classmates. I recognized that Mason was a good school, great in fact when it came to certain programs. But come fall, when all my friends were going to James Madison (blergh), Old Dominion (vom), UVA and Tech, I was still here in NoVa.
As I moved through college I grew to love Mason more and more. I love their Student Media office, I love the campus, I love the people. But it wasn’t until I left Northern Virginia that I realized how cool it was to be a GMU student. When I went to the IHS conference all the participants had name tags that said their names and what school they were from, and on the top it said The Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. People talked to me just because I was from GMU, and they told me how much they admired the school. Particularly in the Libertarian movement, people know instantly what GMU is. It’s not just some school to Libertarians, it’s a fantastic school filled with great thinkers like James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock and Walter Williams.
I am so happy that my parents forced me to go Mason. Mason has provided me with opportunities that I don’t think I could have gotten anywhere else. Going to GMU puts me right outside of D.C. and has been a great conversational point when I’m networking. Being a Libertarian journalist at Mason is pretty awesome, even if the journalism program itself isn’t that hot.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. I haven’t posted any music lately, but I’ve been listening to this all day, and if you like opera you’ve probably heard it/would like it.
Writing about politics is something I never thought I would do. I’ve just never been into politics. I have my own opinions of course, but I’m definitely not a political know-it-all. If you asked me about politics two weeks ago I probably couldn’t have said much, let alone say anything at all about Pennsylvanian politics. But here I am now, with almost two weeks under my belt at my internship, and I can safely say that I have a decent grasp on Pennsylvanian legislation. At first I was scared because I was out of my element, but the further I get into these eight weeks, the more I find that I do enjoy politics. It’s kind of neat to go to committee meetings, run around the Capitol building and of course being able to work in the Newspaper Correspondents office area is incredibly cool.It’s amazing to work around seasoned journalists and just observe how they report. It’s very, very cool.
Anyway, that’s all I have at the moment. For now I’m going to try and drift into dreamland, and neighbors willing, hopefully I won’t have to listen to their incessant noise all night. Thanks for reading.
Oh, and before I forget, I would like to thank everyone for their overwhelming support of my decision not to go to England. It truly warmed my heart to see how many people cared about me and my well being. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for listening and caring.
I’ll just say it. England isn’t happening anymore. It feels almost unreal to say it because I’ve been planning to go for so long now, but yes, it’s not happening.
I guess you want to know why and I can’t say I completely know why to be honest. It’s a mixture of things really. It’s mostly because of how expensive it was. The price kept rising and rising and eventually I couldn’t justify what I was spending on what I was getting. The straw that really broke the camel’s back was an unexpected charge of over $400 for a British Visa on top of the $14,000+ tuition and nearly $8,000 in additional spending. I just can’t justify spending almost $23,000 for one semester abroad. I can’t.
Another thing that added to my uneasiness about going was coming here to Pennsylvania. Living here by myself has really shown me that despite what I may think, I really am a people person and I like being around friends and family. Here I am all alone and it’s hard to say the least. I’m not sure I’m ready at this stage in my life to just hop on a plane and say goodbye to all my friends and family. Call it pathetic, but it’s the truth and it is what it is.
Now I’m in a bit of a rub because I quit my previous job, but maybe I’ll just have a relaxing semester focusing on school. Or maybe I’ll find a sweet internship. I don’t know. For now I’m focusing on this internship and what happens in the fall happens.
The one thing that really sucks is I basically paid Study Abroad $2125 for nothing as I cannot get back my deposit that I just turned in. It’s unfortunate, but that’s life I suppose.
But don’t worry about me, reader. I think I’m making the best decision I can make for myself right now. I wish I would have made this decision a bit earlier, but at least I did it before I dropped $23,000.
To my faithful readers: I humbly apologize for my absence this past week and a half. My life has zoomed forward at a speed that I am not at all familiar with. Since my last post I have successfully completed my first IHS summer seminar, made amazing news friends, left my beloved Virginia, moved to Pennsylvania and started my internship.
My internship has already thrown me to the wolves, as my boss said, and I’ve already written two articles and interviewed politicians, and it’s only my second day! The pace is fast, and although I’m nervous, I know I’m learning a lot of valuable skills.
But let me back track and talk about the IHS seminar. I want to spend some time on that, because I want to encourage any person out there who may even have some Libertarian inclinations to consider going to one of these seminars. The particular seminar I went, Journalism & a Free Society, truly was eye-opening.
There were about 70 participants and a handful of speakers at the event. We heard from Libertarian legends like Radley Balko, and listened to people I’d never heard of before, like Mollie Hemingway and Lene Johnasen, both amazing writers. It was great to have conversations with these accomplished journalists and get their opinion on the current climate in the industry. Although I had long been moving towards digital media, these speakers reinforced my belief that I was making a good decision but also opened my eyes to the idea of working for a magazine.
Another aspect that was covered in regards to the current job market was to find yourself a beat. You can’t just be a jack of all trades, you have to have a specialty. For example, Radley Balko has made his name by carving out a niche covering police raids. He is known throughout the country for exposing government corruption and his hard work paid off, he is now a senior writer at the Huffington Post.
Mollie Hemingway is another great example. She didn’t start out as a journalist, but through working a beat she was able to land great jobs in the industry. She now works as a religion writer and has been published regularly in publications like the Wall Street Journal. Mollie specifically ignited the idea of religion writing in me.
I have always been a fan of religion even though it was just last year that I was baptized into my amazing Roman Catholic Church. Before, when I was just a freshman in college I took a Religion 100 course and I can safely say it was one of my favorite classes at George Mason University. The class was taught by Vicky Dreyer and we covered the top 19 religions in the world, which included obvious ones like Islam and Judaism, but also included Neo-Paganism and Kardashian Spiritism (think 19th/20th century séances–not a religion devoted to the Kardashian sisters).
So yes, I like religion. Maybe I should make it my career to write about it. I’m hoping that this internship at the PA Indy will give me experience churning out quality articles, and then, hopefully, whatever I’m doing in England will give me more experience with culture writing.
All in all it’s been a pretty amazing week. It was hard to leave the nest and say goodbye to my parents (it’s still hard) as well as saying goodbye to my old and new friends, but I know this is the best decision I could make for right now. I really hope that at the end of these two months in Harrisburg I will be a much better journalist, and hopefully person, too.
And as I said before, if you are into the Libertarian movement at all (even just a tiny little bit) get in touch with the Institute for Humane Studies ASAP. They are a great group and can really help you grow in your beliefs.
In roughly five hours I will be waking up and getting ready to leave for the Institute for Humane Studies’ Journalism & a Free Society summer seminar. As you probably know by now, it will be taking place at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pa., where I’ll be learning all about journalism and civil liberties until Friday, June 10.
I don’t have too much time to write since I haven’t packed a thing yet (typical), but I wanted to make sure to touch base with you, my thoughtful reader, and let you know why you won’t be seeing a post for perhaps a week. We can bring laptops, but we have to pay for the wireless, so that’s out. There are public computers we can use, but I’m not sure if I will have time to write something up. Nonetheless, when I get back I will make sure to pen a lovely post and let you know about all my adventures at the seminar.
I can’t wait to go. I’m a bit nervous because I’m not exactly sure what to expect, but at the same time I know there are a ton of other people going who are in the same boat as me, and they are just as anxious and excited as I am. I’m really hoping that I will be able to forge some wonderful friendships during this brief trip.
Oh, and just one week till I move in to my apartment. My apartment. Life is good.
As you probably could have guessed, NYC was amazing. My whole life I’ve always thought D.C. was the greatest city in the United States, but NYC could quite possibly take that honor. On the first day, my sister on several occasions compared to D.C. to NYC, but really they are very different cities, culture wise. Everything is a lot freer over there, where as, even in the touristy areas, D.C. is always a bit more contrived. But, I must say, the tourists here are a whole lot nicer, courteous and just plain not as stupid.
My trip started at 4:15 a.m. on Monday, May 30. I was taking the 7 a.m. Bolt Bus express to 33rd and 7th in New York, and even though it was a holiday and no one would be on the roads, my father made me get up absurdly early. I arrived at Union Station 45 minutes before my bus was to leave, and as you can imagine, there wasn’t a whole lot to do at 6 in the morning. After sitting in the terminal for a while we boarded the bus and ended up having to sit next to the toilet. It was pretty gross to say the least, but it did make for some good jokes.
Four and a half hours later we were in the beautiful city that is New York. My sister, my friend Marcela and I grabbed a taxi, only the second one I’ve ever been on in my life, and headed to the Milford Plaza Hotel near Times Square. Although the lobby looked pretty nice, the room was incredibly tiny. I suppose you get what you pay for, but it was pretty absurd. We also had a beautiful view of a trash heap. Nonetheless, you don’t go to New York for the hotel, you go for the city, and boy did it deliver.
The first day we spent a great deal of time in Times Square and Manhattan in general. We went shopping on Fifth Avenue and took a plethora of photos of giant billboards in Times Square. We ate New York style pizza (good, but can’t compare to Chicago style) and just enjoyed the Empire State.
The second day was the big day of our trip–our only full day. We woke up bright and early and took the Subway to Central Park. Riding the Subway was quite an experience. I liked the low prices (only $2.50 fare) and the extensiveness of the railway, but compared to D.C.’s metro, it was confusing. There are so many lines that take you to such random places, and the way transferring lines works on it was very second nature to me. Although I would love for the D.C. metro to be more extensive (and cheaper!) like New York’s system, I really do like it.
Central Park was pretty amazing. It’s incredible that such a vast amount of forest, playgrounds and fields could be right in the middle of the concrete jungle! I was also fascinated with how rocky NYC was. I was very surprised to see gigantic rock formations throughout the park and city. I suppose it has to do with glacial-receding post-Ice Age, but I wasn’t expecting to see tiny mountains all over the place.
After Central Park we hopped on the Subway again and made our way to Canal Street. I’m not a huge shopper, so cheap, poorly made merchandise didn’t really appeal to me, but my sister and my friend wanted to go. It was unbearably hot, but we made our way up and down Canal Street and looked at lot of stuff. I really couldn’t believe how much people tried to get you to go into their stores. It was a bit too aggressive to be honest.
Afterward, we went into SoHo and then Little Italy to try Lombardi’s Pizza. It’s obviously a tourist trap, as a small cheese pizza cost over $16, but we wanted to try it out anyway. It was good, and it was nice to have reprieve from the high temperatures. Post-Lombardi’s we stopped by Rice to Riches, a rice pudding specialty store in Little Italy, where my friend tried some of their berry flavored rice pudding. Icky to me, delicious to her.
We still weren’t done with Little Italy, and thanks to good fortune, we happened to be there during a St. Anthony celebration. There were street vendors, games, food, decorations and lots of people. They had a big St. Anthony statue on one side of the street where people could pin dollar bills to it. It was really, really cool.
We then headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge where I was able to get some beautiful photos of the water. It was a pretty long walk–I didn’t realize the bridge was that long! After that we headed back to Times Square where we spent the rest of the night.
On our last day we took a trip on the Staten Island Ferry. We didn’t particularly care about Staten Island (we didn’t stay very long on it) but we wanted to get a nice view of the Statue of Liberty and the City from the water. It was a pretty crappy boat, but it was fun! We even saw our first fight in New York, which was pretty epic.
The rest of the trip winded down after that. We ate at Chevy’s near Times Square (and had a fabulous waitress named Vicky “Salsa Queen”) and ate a giant cupcake at Europan Bakery nearby. We then headed back to 33rd and 7th, but unfortunately got lost and had to run 15 blocks in 20 minutes so we wouldn’t miss our bus. In 80+ degree weather. You can probably tell that we weren’t looking our best our last few minutes in New York. But all was not lost, we had a fabulous view of a Greek god on the bus.
It was a wonderful trip. I definitely want to visit New York again this summer, and funds willing, I hopefully will. For now, I’m spending some down time at home before I leave for the IHS seminar on Saturday in Bryn Mawr, Pa. After that Harrisburg. Crazy how fast life is going by.
Times Square is beautiful!
The St. Anthony statue at the festival in Little Italy!
In about six hours I will be departing my house in NoVa and heading to the big, beautiful city that is New York City! I’m beyond excited! I’ll be heading up there via Bolt Bus with my sister and my good friend Marcela and staying at a decent hotel near Times Square. I’m not exactly sure what we are going to do but visiting the Met, Lombardi’s, Carnegie Deli and taking a ride on the Staten Island Ferry are all on the list. Have a suggestion about where I should go? Please let me know!
This trip marks the beginning of the whirlwind adventure that I’m about to embark on. Once I get back late Wednesday evening I will only be in Virginia two days before I leave for the IHS seminar at Bryn Mawr University for a week. Then I move into my apartment in Harrisburg, Pa on June 11! And then of course, London in less than three months!
I know there is a possibility that I’m going to face a lot of hardships, lonely days and problems, but life is good and I am so excited for what the future holds!
Well, I just wanted to write a quick update since I won’t be writing for the next couple of days while I’m in NYC. When I get back I’ll make sure to write a long, detailed post about my adventures there!
Today was a very bittersweet day for me. Today was perhaps, if not the last, one of the last days, that I will spend at the Office of Student Media until I get back from England in December. Even then I probably won’t visit until January sometime. Although the office is new (we only moved-in in February) it was hard for me to say goodbye.
I packed up my belongings, not too many, just a few decorative pieces, and cleaned up my area. It was difficult removing the little paper cutouts my friend and C2M videographer Alicia gave me when we moved-in. It was hard to go through my drawer and look at all the notes I had written. Although the office is new, Student Media isn’t and it has been my home for a long time.
Student Media saved me in a lot of ways. I suppose that sounds sort of odd, but it’s the truth. When I first came to college I lived a typical commuter-student life. I took a few night classes, made some friends and got the hell off of campus as soon as class ended. I didn’t feel very fulfilled that first semester. But during my second semester as a freshman I made one of the best decisions of my life and I signed up for the COMM 145 Newspaper Workshop class.
COMM 145 gets your foot in the door at Student Media. It’s taught by Kathryn Mangus, the director of Student Media, who is an absolutely amazing woman and journalist who knows the media like the back of her hand. The class teaches students how to write journalistically while also briefing them on media law, libel and other points of interest. The class may be, in my opinion, the most beneficial Communication class offered at Mason despite it only being worth one credit. In fact, if I were running the Communication Department I would make it a requirement for all journalism-concentration students. That class truly reignited a great passion for journalism in my heart.
I had been involved in my high school’s newspaper The Valkyrie for three years, but when I came to college I took a break from journalism. That was a mistake.
Journalism and I have a love-hate relationship, but I think that is the case with almost all journalists. It’s a job that takes up a lot of your time, doesn’t really pay well and often makes you unpopular; but it is so rewarding. You meet so many wonderful people and you really get to know and understand how the world works on a lot of different levels.
So when I first came to college I wanted a break, I thought I needed to take a step back from all the interviews and work that journalism required, but I felt empty. I felt like I was just going through the motions of college. Wake up, homework, class, home.
But when I started the workshop class I was immediately able to write for Broadside, GMU’sstudent newspaper, and it was like a breath of fresh air! My career at Student Media had begun and it would take me on a long journey filled with great interviews, awkward ones, laughs, anxiety and not a lot of sleep–but most importantly on a journey of finding myself. And here I am over two years later about to take a big hiatus from it.
Yeah, I’m coming back, and when I come back I’m doing something really fun and actually being in charge. And yes, I’m not taking a break from journalism, I’ll likely have two journalism related internships completed when I get back, but it’s still difficult to say goodbye to Student Media. For all its unorganization, for all the crazy drama that goes down, I love that place. I’ve never felt as accepted, worthwhile and loved as I do when I’m at Student Media.
I don’t want to be someone who can’t move on from Student Media, though. I understand that after a while it’s time to get on with life and be a professional. As I read somewhere but can’t recall exactly where, student media is one of the only places where you get to be in charge and be adult-like and still have adults protect you. It’s definitely a sheltered environment in a lot of ways, but an essential step in becoming a journalist.
I’ve never understood how someone could consider themselves a journalist simply by having a journalism degree. Journalism is one of the only professions where there are really no qualifications, anyone can be a journalist if you play your cards right. The only thing is you need to be published somewhere. Showing someone a certificate saying that you studied journalism is great, but you need to show someone that you’ve worked in journalism (and understand the misery that goes into it). This is why Student Media is great, it allows for people to get involved with many different forms of media and get actual experience.
And in the midst of all my parting with Student Media angst, something funny happened. I checked-in to the office today on Foursquare and was named the mayor. I was named the mayor on my last day there, how ironic. Being the mayor doesn’t really mean a lot, it’s just Foursquare, and not even that many people check-in. There will probably be a new mayor tomorrow, but, I don’t know, it just seemed like a fitting way to leave.
Update, Sunday, May 22 at 2:15 a.m.: I added an image to the bottom of this post after reading this week’s PostSecret.
Quick update on my life: I’ve finally found out what day I’m starting my internship–June 13! It’s the perfect timing because it will give me a full week to get ready for London when I get back in August. The only rub is that I will only have two days to move in between starting my internship and leaving the IHS seminar. But I’ll make it work.
Right now I’m just searching for housing, and let me just say, it’s really hard. You would think the capital of the state would have more short-term leasing options available for summer interns, but they don’t. This one apartment complex I’m looking at is really giving me the run around. It would have been perfect, too–a 10 minute walk to my job and a great Catholic Church and it’s in the middle of downtown! I’m hoping they decide to give me a call back soon, otherwise I’m probably going to be moving out to the suburbs and that’s just not as fun.
But in other news, and to actually say something of relevance, I wanted to touch on how cool QR codes are. By now most everyone knows what they are, the funky little boxy things that you scan with your smartphone and takes you to a webpage.
I happen to love QR codes, they are incredibly useful and just plain cool. I was introduced to them by my boss at Connect2Mason last summer. The first time we utilized them (or at least that I saw) was in August during freshmen orientation; we printed a bunch of sheets and passed them out to the freshies and once they scanned them it took them to a video explaining a contest we were holding. The contest wasn’t very successful, but I believe that was because, at the time, people didn’t really understand QR codes. I think people do now, more so at least. I’ve seen them used in Lupe Fiasco’s campaign for his album Lasers, like in the video for “Words I Never Said” (jump to :48 seconds or so), in cupcake competitions (really, how awesome is that?), and now even in PostSecret.
So QR codes are pretty mainstream. Connect2Mason and Broadside, GMU’s student-run newspaper, used them last semester during the Student Government elections; students could read bios on the candidates in the paper and then be directed to video interviews that C2M conducted. It was pretty fantastic and was precisely what Connect2Mason is about–convergence!
So this brings me to my point, why aren’t more publications utilizing the QR code? Not sure.
Yesterday evening I was flipping through my Newsweek and in this one article about cooking I was directed to visit The Daily Beast website for a recipe, no link was provided, it just said visit The Daily Beast. Could Newsweek actually expect me and their other readers to put down their magazine, turn on our computers and actually search for this recipe? I was immediately surprised that Newsweek, which last year merged with The Daily Beast, wasn’t utilizing the QR code. It was like the QR code was made for Newsweek/Daily Beast convergence! I suppose you could argue that they simply don’t have the space for it, but I counted and there are about 38 pages of ads including the back cover of Newsweek. There are only 86 pages.
I was pretty frustrated that I’m essentially paying for a magazine of ads, and they can’t even spare a few inches of the page for a stinking QR code, so what did I do? I tweeted it. And to my surprise, they responded.
Here is the transcript:
YasminTadjdeh: @Newsweek, instead of telling me to visit @thedailybeast for a story, just use a QR code. You have 38 pages of ads, you’ve got the space.
Newsweek: @YasminTadjdeh we’ve played with that idea. 1 issue is to work w/ majority of phones, QR has to be certain size, 2 big for most pages ^br
YasminTadjdeh: @Newsweek well, even if QR codes won’t work there needs to be a more direct way for readers to get to the content, a bit.ly link perhaps
YasminTadjdeh: @Newsweek I’m sure you guys have the numbers, but I’m pretty confident not a ton of people are going to use the search tool to find a story
Newsweek: @YasminTadjdeh we’re with ya. ideally nwk.com/story, simple URL. getting there. ^br
YasminTadjdeh: @Newsweek excellent 🙂 looking forward to seeing it! I love print/digital media convergence!
It was pretty fantastic having an actual, albeit very short, conversation with Newsweek. I’m glad to hear that they are looking at other options for linking besides the primitive search feature, but come on, QR codes don’t take up that much space. They really don’t. Plus design-wise, Newsweek can spare the space. And if they can’t, perhaps consider getting rid of one of your 38 pages of ads, I mean, didn’t I pay for your magazine?
Well, that’s it for tonight. Glad I was able to survive the Rapture and actually get to post this. So to celebrate why don’t you listen to this awesome Hanson song? Yeah, Hanson!
This was in this week's (May 22) PostSecret. What great timing! I just had to update this post with it. Scan it and see what it says!
Time is flying. I’ve finished up my junior year of college, I’m nearly finished with my job at Connect2Mason, and I’m just about to leave for the Institute for Humane Studies‘ Journalism & a Free Society seminar at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. It’s shaping up to be a great time. I’ll be in the Philly-region from June 4-10 learning about journalism, meeting other libertarians and meeting real, working journalists.
IHS is pretty darn generous. The entire seminar is free, and besides that they are paying for my lodging and my food, all I have to pay for is my transportation (I’m driving).
I’ve recently joined the Facebook group for the seminar and it is fascinating to see what kind of people are coming. There are people flying to the seminar from Africa, Asia, Mexico, Latin America, Canada and the Middle East. It makes me feel so privileged that I am able to just hop in my car and drive a few hours north and bam I’m there.
I’m still waiting on finding out the official start date of my summer internship in Harrisburg, Pa but I am so excited. I’m really hoping to find out this week so I can head up there and take care of my housing. So many things are happening all at once, it’s just amazing.
Although I’m going to miss a few people, I’m so happy that I’ll be away from everything for quite some time this year. It’s a fresh start, and that’s something I’ve wanted for so long now.
