He Got my Credit Cards, my License, and my Resume.

Sometimes I see myself the way I worry that others might see me: cliché. In some ways I am Coyote Ugly. The tragic story of the young Midwestern girl moving to the big bad city to be discovered and realize her dream as a superstar. Only in my dream, is just a successful woman in the television industry. Maybe someone who gets tickets to the Golden Globe awards. Maybe someone who eventually presents an award? But lets not get ahead of ourselves. For now, just a successful woman in the television industry would be fine. And I don’t expect to get there overnight. I expect to earn it. But that is for another post.
Lets go back to that cliché.
On Thanksgiving this past year, I decided to stay in New York, and experience one of the greatest days New York City has offer. I went to a Balloon Party, where I got to watch people blowing up the balloons for the Macy’s day parade. (I saw Mariska Hargitay there, and our exchange of ‘Happy Holidays’ was super exciting too.)
I woke up early that Thursday morning to get breakfast with friends, and the walk along the parade from the Upper West Side all the way down to Times Square.

I then rushed back to my apartment to pick up my overnight bag and take the 1 train up to Riverdale, where I was catching a ride to Thanksgiving dinner.
I stood on the platform waiting for the train to arrive, impatiently looking between my watch and down the seemingly endless black tunnel. Finally, the growing light indicated that a train was arriving.
The doors opened and I politely stepped aside to allow other people to exit. Then, as I myself was about to step on to the train, some guy cut in front of me, entered the train, and then just stood there, looking confused. I waited, standing now right in between the doors, waiting for him to step aside and let me through. Finally, as the doors began to close, he jumped off of the train at the last second, allowing me to move into the train car just before it pulled away. As I then put my bag on my lap, I realized that it had been opened, and my stuff had been taken.
Within seconds I realized what had happened. I asked the guy next to me if someone else had been standing behind me, 'waiting to get on' while the whole 3 second occurrence took place. He said yes, but then he decided not to get on at the last second. He too then understood what had happened.
Two guys had basically sandwiched me between the doors, quickly opened my bag and took things, including my wallet, and then jumped off the train, leaving me headed to the next station, sans wallet, and without reception. Lucky for me, I have Verizon, and while I think their customer service is terrible (I actually HATE them) I can't seem to make good on my threats to leave them because they have the best service around. So from the subway, I canceled my credit cards, and began fuming that I had just been mugged, at 1pm, on Thanksgiving Day.

Oh, and of course, my resume is tucked away inside my wallet. You think he's got good contacts in the entertainment industry? You think he'll bother to pass it along?

The Big Dipper AND The Little Dipper

So I have been getting a lot of feedback from readers saying that I am reaching too far and expecting too much. Not only have I been qualified for every job I have applied for, but as I’ve responded to one doubting reader, how else am I supposed to eventually land the dream job? While I may be reaching for the stars, I have not zoomed exclusively passed everything else. It just so happens, that in this economy- it seems that only the big names still have any money to pay even minimum wage. Mind you, its minimum wage and nothing else, but at least they provide more than a ‘monthly metro card and lunch’.

Still though, at this point I am open to any experience, even if it means I live in the subway and eat only the middle meal.

On another slow job posting day last winter, I decided to see what I could find in places that weren't necessarily looking to hire. By my reaching out, they might be able to find a spot for me- or at least know how to find me if they ever have a spot. But how to find these places?
In addition to searching New York production companies in Google, I wanted to find a list of actual potential contacts in the media field.
Well, my university didn’t, and still doesn’t, have a film program. But that’s what happens when you go into college as ‘undecided’ and then realize when you have to ‘decide’, that you have decided on something that isn’t offered. No matter for the determined and creative right? I created my own major. But that’s another story. This story is starts off with the thought ‘what might have been’.

I couldn't get too much help from my school, so I tried to think outside the box. What if I had gone to a different school that could help me? Ideally, I supposed, if I had known what I wanted to do when I was applying to schools, I would have applied to NYU. And if I had gotten in and done what I wanted to do, I guess I would have gone to Tisch. There went the light bulb over my head.

I went on the NYU Tisch website. I searched around for a while, until I found a list of places that Tisch students intern and eventually get jobs. I looked up every name and ever company on that list, found their contact email and information, and emailed them my cover letter and resume. While it still hasn’t netted me a job, the names I am continuously adding to my contacts are going to make my little black book quite valuable one day.