Pushing 30 - Part I

When I was graduating from college, I had a ten year plan. I was going to concur the world. I was going to embark on a highly successful career path, get married, take time out to have kids while pursuing a graduate degree while bouncing said baby on my knee and reenter the workforce with gusto by the time...I was 30.

What a crock of shit.

I'm now 28 and have no fucking idea what to do with my life.

Let me regress...In the spring of 1997, I was pre-law at Oswego University (SUNY if you must - and only SUNY because Boston University couldn't give me the financial aid I needed and hell, I'm still paying SUNY off...) and finishing up my degree. With a year and a half left, I needed something to do. Part of my major called for taking two electives in another major's track. I chose Communications, figuring that what I loved about Law was really the manipulation of ideas (it's sick and twisted, I know, but hey...that's me) and how better to do that than public speaking and mass media? The classes I chose were BRC 108 - Broadcasting and Mass Media and shocker - Intro to Public Speaking.

I LOVED these classes and finally felt like I'd finally gotten in touch with some piece of my personality and skillset that had been idling under the surface.

Fuck the LSATS. I was now a double major in Poly Sci and PR. I would strive for a BA in BS.

Flash forward to summer of junior year. I've now enjoyed a full year of Comm courses and it was time to get an internship. Enter: LIVE! with Regis and Kathie Lee.

I saw a flyer, one of those cheap non-standout kinds on green paper with black ink outside the "Career Resources Center." It screamed ABC INTERNSHIPS!!! APPLY NOW!!! Well, I whipped up a resume, put my graphic arts/press release/crap portfolio together, hitched a predawn ride with my housemate through a snowstorm to the bus station in Syracuse, hopped a Greyline with the last $40 I had and arrived at the alienlike Port Authority, suitcase in hand, on a random spring morning. I negotiated the 20something blocks to 66th/Columbus Avenue on time to arrive at the ABC studio at 9am to.....wait. And wait. And.....wait some more.

At least 500 people went on one-on-one interviews before me. My boyfriend at the time, god bless his dear heart, arrived at 4pm to sit with me (he lived on Long Island). At 5 pm, a very tired looking woman with a clipboard called the seven of us remaining without a notion of humanity in her voice.

I was ON.

(and I must add, I can rock a suit)

We got called to the LIVE! With Regis and Kathie Lee table. All fucking seven of us. But to hell with them, I thought, this is my interview. I interrupted the bored interviewer by practically shoving my black-bound portfolio in her face. "Excuse me, Ms. XX XX, when we're finished here, would you mind taking a look at my portfolio? I would greatly appreciate your professional opinion," all while flipping through the good stuff. Ms. XX XX was impressed, shown only by her arched and perfectly waxed right brow. She looked me dead in the eye and said..."Um, stay here...we'll be done in a minute."

The plebes around me sighed in defeat. The internship was mine! Well....two months later after I'd harassed Ms. XX XX into giving me the spot, the created-soley-for-me-I-hung-in-regis'-office-not-the-stageset-below-internship was mine. What a summer...