Today was a day where I felt out of my comfort zone, and then said to myself, "Hey! That's great that you're out of your comfort zone!" but then I still felt uncomfortable. Work has been somewhat frustrating lately because after the fund drive, I am no longer a money-attracting powerhouse intern, but now fall back among the attention-needy masses. I came here to learn about news production, but it seems that it's not enough just to want to help out; in order to be respected or paid attention to, I need to be self sufficient or make a lot of noise. My boss spends his day greasing squeaky wheels, while I try to model discretion, which isn't a great way to learn things.
... I started that entry two nights ago in a bad mood, and waited for a better mood to come along after trying to fix my frustration at work. Turns out, yesterday was International Working Women's Day, and by some puzzling logic, men aren't allowed in the building.
My wishes were quietly answered, and I slid into the newsroom with the other female producers as my boss was out of the building. Right away, they put me to work, interviewing people for that night's newscast. I couldn't believe the ease of compiling stories, writing copy to accompany them and editing .wav files for broadcast. It was a total thrill. I said to one woman that I couldn't believe I had spent so much time behind the scenes, working with the fund drive, when my real niche was here. She answered me that my boss had been hogging me for the extra help.
It's funny how you can't realize the components in a system from within. Had I known that this was the situation, I would have wiggled my way into the news room weeks ago. I drafted up questions, contacted assistants to arrange interviews, researched my subjects, recorded interviews and edited them for three pieces in the news hour. I spoke with the founders of Right Rides, 350.org and the Ms. Foundation to celebrate women's day, as the Egyptian women took to the streets on the ever blaring news television above the computers.
Another bonus to add to the awesome day was I found out I got into the Thailand study abroad program at Kalamazoo (as though I wasn't already spoiled enough).
The weather's transitioning to spring and the city feels like it's waking up. I'm sitting at a raucous cafe in Chelsea where I made the very Midwestern mistake of placing my sunglasses on an empty table to mark my territory as I waited in line. Naturally, when I arrived back to the table with my coffee, the glasses were gone, and someone else had set up shop.
Another yokel moment was explaining to my boss that I thought bickering and standing up for yourself against people gossiping behind your back was a waste of time, and that ones work speaks for itself. He told me to find a new career pathway.
One cultural difference I notice here is a lot more people having ego battles in day-to-day life. Either in the workplace, or overheard, I listen to so many people partaking in meaningless dialogues where their main prerogative seems to be preventing their counterpart finding any flaw or ignorance within them. This makes for insubstantial conversations that make me want to withdraw from speaking, lest I end up in some passive aggressive battle over indie music I didn't sign up for.
I love the black and white differences between New York "time is money" and Costa Rican "pura vida" culture. Living in the two places have given me so much perspective on human behavior, and I can't wait to see what Thailand has in store.
***Listen to my contributing interview on today's news hour at 17:55.***
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