My Name In Lights

Broke and Happy at CBS! April 2, 2009

So I haven’t posted in a while, partially due to much needed spring break and partially due to the fact that I’ve been so busy since getting back from break. But here I am and I have an announcement to make… I am officially a CBS-News NY intern! Yay! So I guess it’s time to back track to the last most important thing that happened to me and get back up to speed.

I actually found out just after interviewing a woman named Elza Habif for my class CNJ 445. Habif’s story will be posted on the webpage our class is building, called Millennium Beat, very soon. (Can’t wait for us to launch the site sometime next week. ) Anyway back to finding out about CBS. So Josh and I interview this woman, Elza, who now operates a jewelry store in downtown Miami that sells just about every kind of “lucky eye” jewelry imaginable. If you don’t know what a lucky eye is, it is a Turkish/Greek symbol of the open eye that is meant to prevent you from harm. (Again for more details check out our story on Millennium Beat.com) We learn the whole background story of the “eyes”, how they’re supposed to bring you luck and protect you from evil and we get an amazing interview.

When I get home, I decide to check my mailbox which never has anything in it just for fun. But this time when I open the box, there is a huge white envelope inside containing my acceptance to the CBS News Internship Program. I jump up and down for like five minutes with my roommate.

Now I’m back in my dorm, already sifting through the paperwork CBS gives you, reading the contract, and I have one of Oprah’s “Aha Moments”. What is staring right at me from the top of the CBS letterhead and the front of that big white envelope? What is the CBS trademark and symbol???? The eye, the lucky eye.

I have to believe my getting the internship and learning about the lucky eye that day three weeks ago is a sign from the universe that CBS is where I’m supposed to be this summer. I’m also grateful that I heard back from CBS pretty quickly because a lot of my friends at school are still waiting to hear and the whole process is extremely nerve-wracking to be drawn out for such a long time.

The internship will be unpaid and 40 hours a week and the bus tickets into the city from my home in NJ just increased so my wallet will definitely take a hit this summer. Some people look at this as a negative, but I’m Ok with it. I will earn credit towards my major and I actually never expected to get a paid internship. Plus I plan on countering any hit I might take by teaching spin classes at the New York Sports Club.

I look at an unpaid internship as CBS doing me a favor by taking me in and giving me this opportunity to learn the CBS tricks of the trade. The way I see it, the value of the experience I will gain this summer is worth way more to me than any amount of mula. So cheers to being broke and happy summer 2009!