I thought I'd write a little bit about how things went when I met with Maurice DuBois. Well,the whole experienc was fantastic, definitely one of the most exciting experiences I've ever had. I met with him on Friday, November 18th at 3:30 in the lobby of CBS (I was in CBS!) and from there, we walked to his office. That was unexpected, I thought he'd have me interview him in like a conference room or some sort of general area, so to be in his own office made the experience even cooler. Maurice is great! He's so pleasant, so down-to-earth, so generous with his time, and just an all around great person. It was really nice to find out that he is as pleasant in person as he presents himself to be on television. I spent a little under an hour with him. He showed me around the newsroom and we talked for a little bit before I started the interview. The interview itself went well. He not only answered my questions, but he went into depth with all of his answers too. We took a couple pictures together, and then he walked me back downstairs to the CBS lobby and I went back home to Jersey. It all felt so unreal, but at the same time kind of natural too. It was just such an amazing experience! BUT, when I got home and played the tape back to hear our interview the tape was blank. My heart just about sank once I found that out, especially since the one major thing that I was supposed to do was record the interview so that I could use it in the future for the radio station and my portfolio. I had no idea what to do, but I thought that since things went so well with him, I should email him explaining what happened and request another interview. I actually felt really bad doing that since he had already been so generous with his time, but I figured if I didn't ask, there would be no way of me ever getting our interview on tape. He agreed to the second interview (thank God!), so in my eyes, Maurice DuBois is the nicest person ever, lol. We met again two weeks later at CBS (same deal) and I actually think that the interview was better the second time around. I was more comfortable since I had a better sense of who he was, my questions were a lot better, and it felt a bit more conversational. I had a minidisc recorder and a microphone with me (I felt more official, lol), so this time, the interview recorded perfectly. Before I left, he asked if I could send him a copy of my project once I was finished with it. I am so thrilled about that. Just having him look over my work is incredible (a little intimidating too, but mostly incredible), so after the holidays, I'm going to stop by CBS once more to give him a copy of my whole project. Things got a little screwed up the first time around, but in the end, I couldn't be happier with the way things worked out.

I could not be more excited...he said YES!

So, for the Newsgatherthing course I'm taking this semester, I was assigned to pick a topic of interest to research as part of a semester long project. Since I have such a passion for broadcast journalism, I decided to do my project on the news. The news in general is way too broad of a topic, so since I want to be an anchor one day, I decided to do my project on my favorite established anchor in NYC, Maurice DuBois. I had to make up a fact sheet about him, make a list of interview questions, and send him a letter requesting an interview, so that I could put it all together and write an article about him. Two weeks after I sent him the letter requesting an interview, I emailed him to follow up and today he emailed me back....he said he'd "be happy to talk with" me!!! I can't believe it, I am so excited! I don't know when we're going to meet yet (we're in the process of setting that up), but I got the interview! I got to meet him briefly when he came to my college's Communication Career Luncheon in 2004, so I'm really looking forward to having a more in depth conversation with him about his job and the business.

This is definitely a top 5 moment.

Time flies. I can't believe I haven't written anything since June. Well, since my last post, I worked with my former professor to observe the program he told me about for three weeks over the summer, and it was such a cool experience. I haven't gotten the chance to do a story about it for my school's radio station yet because it hasn't reopened after being closed for the summer. I also did make the Dean's List with honors, started working for ERA again and I've been doing the Public Relations thing for the Latino organization on campus.

I'm already about half way through the semester. I've been checking out the Greek life on my campus and I'm pretty excited about it. I went to three interest meetings for Mu Sigma Upsilon and it seems awesome, so I've decided that I'm going to pledge in the Spring (if accepted) I would pledge this semester, but they're not pledging new members until the Spring. They don't haze, and their pledge period is military style which should be interesting. It's the first multicultural sorority in the nation. The girls are sweet and seem like they're for real. It's definitely not like one of those stereotypical sororities, not that's there's necessarily anything wrong with those, but they're just not for me. So anyway, it's professional and all, like once you let them know you want to join, you have to submit a resume, an essay, two letters of recommendation, and have two interviews with them. Then you get a letter in the mail letting you know if you are invited to join their sisterhood. I'm so excited! I've always wanted to join a sorority. I just think they're really cute and I like the idea of the whole sisterhood thing. Plus, I'm a girlie girl, so it's something that appeals to me. I also like that since we don't have a house on campus, and since my school is so small, it wouldn't dominate my life. It'll be something I'm part of, but it won't define me, you know? Like at other bigger universities, it's seems like sometimes that can define who you are. So that's what's been going on lately. I'm loving the change of weather, and I'm kind of looking forward to Halloween even though I'm already 20.

It's late, but I feel like writing a little something. I'm wide awake anyway, so staying up for a few more minutes won't hurt. It's about half way through the summer and it's been going well. I've been in the radio studio at school almost everyday either doing news or my own show. It's been incredible. One of my former professors is giving me an opportunity to cover a summer program he's doing with Newark high school kids as a story for my show. Isn't that awesome? It's super thoughtful and I think it's going to be a great experience. I'm so excited about the opportunity. I know it's been six months (time flies) since I've returned to Bloomfield, but I'm still so happy that I'm back. I'm about to start summer sessions on Tuesday. I'm actually kind of looking forward to them. I'm a little bit nervous about how the work load is going to be since everything is condensed during summer sessions, but that nervousness will drive me to do my best. For me, usually the more intimidating and challenging something is, the greater my will to succeed becomes. I'll have one week off once I'm done with my summer classes before the fall semester begins. I'm thinking about maybe going to Puerto Rico for that week to visit my cousin, but that's a huge maybe. We shall see...

I did really well last semester! I got a 3.5 gpa for a semester which brought my cum average to a 3.0. I pretty sure that qualifies me for dean's list, so I'm satisfied.

I was elected Public Relations representative for the Association of Latin American Students at Bloomfield for the 2005-2006 school year yesterday. I'm so excited! I think it's going to be great.

It's the middle of the semester and things are still great! I love my classes and I've been getting so much out of my professors. Dr. Nutter brought some Communication majors to the IBS radio conference in New York City at Hotel Pennsylvania last weekend and Wendy Williams was there! I was so excited and surprised to see her there I almost couldn't contain myself. I was sitting right behind her before she stood up to speak and she answered one of my questions! It was so awesome. For dinner, we went to this restaurant called Niles. The food was amazing and I had such a nice time. It turned was a wonderful day.

It's been two weeks since the beginning of the semester and if there was one word to describe it so far, it would be fabulous...that's my new favorite word "fabulous", lol. I can't even begin to articulate how wonderful things have been, or how completely blessed I feel. My classes are so interesting and my professors are phenomenal. I am so enthused and everything has been going smoothly. I'm taking a lot of major courses so since it's the first time I'm being exposed to things like radio production and writing for radio and television. I'm being challenged which I love. I've found that the more I'm challenged the more I grow, and I love being able to look back on how I have progressed at the end of the semester. I feel so super blessed and it just feels so good to have things back to normal.

Titi Lee sent me a card yesterday to let me know that she's happy that I was able to return to Bloomfield and sent me "a little something to help with books". But the check she sent me was more than "a little something". I was truly touched by the card, and their extreme generosity was just so sweet. Her and Uncle Freddy are the best. I mean who does that? They're so thoughtful. Until next time, take it easy.

The holidays have passed and we are officially in 2005. Time has truly been flying by, it's almost February already.

After much consideration and an unbelievable amount of prayers, I have decided to return to Bloomfield College and I'm so happy that I did. I know it probably seems like it should have been a relatively easy decision to make considering my previous posts which clearly showed my overall unhappiness with Temple, but I can't even express the difficulty I had with making that decision. I honesty didn't know what to do and kept going back and forth between schools. The whole thing was complicated, and I am in no way the type of person who looks to complicate things. I am all about simple. When it came down to it, I had to get real and do what was best for me which was to return to Bloomfield. Had I stayed at Temple, I would have been staying for all the wrong reasons. There is no way that I could have stayed at Temple just because it's "Temple" if I am not truly happy and having my expectations met. That would just be ridiculous and and a waste of my college years. I know Temple is a good school and I'm sure that for some people, it's the best thing ever, but for me, it just did not work. I am glad that I had the experience, but I am so ready to start the spring semester at Bloomfield and keep moving forward. I am so happy I made the decision I did. I finally feel at peace for the first time in three months. It's like I can breathe again and things are back to normal.

I have been reinstated at Bloomfield (which was a total blessing) as of Tuesday and am going to register for the spring semester tomorrow morning at 9am. Tomorrow is the first day of classes, but I'm not taking any Thursday classes so I will start on Friday. I can't wait and am just so happy! Things are wonderfully falling back into place which is something I had faith in happening, but wasn't sure of. But things are good. Until next time, take it easy.

Wednesday is officially my last day of school and I am more than happy about that. I never thought that ending this semester was going to feel this good. I know that things are never perfect, but this whole semester was just unreasonably bad. I was not happy, I was unable to find balance, I'd find myself crying some nights because of the way I felt about things which is something I do not do unless I am extremely upset, and I just felt like I was in this gray area for the past three months constantly hoping that things would get better, but they never did. I have never felt that way before and it was so out of character for me. Looking back, I'm glad I got to have this experience. Even though it was a struggle and left me feeling broken at times, I learned a lot and grew from it. I am so happy this time in my life is about to come to a close. I have a better perspective on things and feel so much better. I'm putting this experience behind me and am just looking forward to break and then starting the spring semester new and fresh. I am going to do my best to stay positive and just keep moving forward. I have high hopes for the next year and next semester so God willing, everything will work out. If things don't improve and I find myself feeling the same way I did this semester, then I am definitely going back to Bloomfield. Honestly, at this point I think I will be returning to Bloomfield next year, but we will see. With the way things work out for me sometimes, I can never be sure of where I am going to end up until I am there. I know things will never be perfect and I don't expect that, but these are my college years and I expect them to be great.

I've been praying a lot about my situation with Temple. I'm not happy, but I'm not miserable either. I just wasn't expecting things to be like this. I've been really trying to make the best of things. This semester has been so weird. I am ready for it to be over so I can start the spring semester and hopefully have the experience I was expecting. All in all, I am glad that I transferred. Like my mom said, I've gotten to experience college from both sides which is cool. Where I'll go from here, I don't know yet, but I am glad I transferred. It was a pretty big thing for me to do, pulling myself out of an extremely comfortable environment (being home, having a job I loved, going to a school with professors who really believed in me and supported me) and seeing what else is out there. If nothing else, I now know that I wasn't missing anything important at Bloomfield. I have grown from this and in some way, this experience has made me stronger.

Temple is not what I was expecting it to be. During the first week of the semester I was completely unhappy and wanted to switch back to Bloomfield right away. Everyone told me to give it a chance, that I was adjusting and what I was feeling was completely normal so I decided to stick it out, but nothing has changed outside of my comfort level. It still just feels wrong. I am going to give it another semester just to see if anything improves, but if nothing changes I am seriously going to consider transferring back. Academically, I am completely unfulfilled. In almost all of my classes the professors use power point presentations and just read from their notes in every class. What the fuck is that? It's so unstimulating and boring. I need more of a challenge. I feel like I'm back in high school in the sense that I go to class and do my assignments just to get the grade. It means nothing to me though, it's like everything stops at the door, you know? At Bloomfield it meant more. In a lot of my classes there aren't even a decent amount of class discussion either. For example, in my International Politics course, the students will sometimes start debating a topic and the professor will be like "okay, let's get back to this," referring to the power point slides. How are you supposed to get the full academic experience if you can't even share and hear the opinions, questions, and views of others? I feel like I have not grown at all since I've been there. I know it's "Temple" and it's supposed to be a great school so I am hope it's not just running off of its name these days. Yes, I realize that its name and prestige are a positive thing as far as what it can do for me in the future, but things like that never mattered to me. I need more substance than that and I will not stay somewhere just for its reputation if I'm not truly happy. There is no way that I would stay there for superficial reasons. At this point, Temple can't touch the experience I had at Bloomfield and I don't see much room to grow. Something definitely has to change. I praise God that my living situation has been truly blessed and I pray that it will continue to be blessed. Hopefully, next semester will be great, otherwise, I'll be back at Bloomfield.

I took a risk and transferred to Temple University in Philadelphia. It's been an interesting experience so far. It hasn't been horrible but it hasn't been great either. Hopefully, within another month or two, I'll be content with my decision to have left Bloomfield. My professors from Bloomfield have been so encouraging and supportive through all of this. It's funny though, for some reason when you're going through a tough time people tell you that you'll grow from the experience in the end. I guess that's supposed to be the silver lining to your cloud - that you'll "grow" from it. I really do have to count my blessings though. I have a great apartment with my own bedroom and bathroom which is basically unheard of for college living and my roommates are really great. My roomies are Erin, Faith, and Cailin. We're all pretty similar as far as study habits, temperaments, cleanliness, and none of us are into drugs. I'm so thankful for that and I definitely don't take my living arrangment for granted. Everything else could be better, but I'm toughing it out and praying. It's just going to take some time.

I stayed in Philly this weekend. Faith and I drove all around the city and we had lunch together. It was great getting to know her more. I am going to go home next weekend though since Chris and I are getting together for lunch on Saturday. I'm looking forward to that.

The summer is going well. Although at times it feels like it's flying by, it's actually going by at a nice pace. I have been going to the Bronx pretty frequently to visit the girls and our time together has been great. Jessica and I always have the best time when we hang out. We have been having awesome conversations about God, scripture, and Christianity in general. It's been truly blessed.

I got accepted to Temple University as a transfer student for fall 04! I got accepted about three weeks ago and everything has been going smoothly since. The are giving me $11,905 in financial aid and have accepted all but one of my courses from Bloomfield. I've been to the school twice and I love it! I feel truly blessed and am really looking forward to starting. I am a little nervous since it is a change and a whole new experience, but I know that it's going to be great. Initially, I wasn't sure about whether I should transfer or not so I put it into prayer and spoke to a few people, including Dr. Nutter, and in the end, I decided on Temple. It's a great school and like I said, I am really excited.

I have been working all summer, it's still going well. Everyone has been wishing me the best with school. I will work until a week before I move to school. I passed my school real estate exam so now I just have to take the state test.

I'm still thinking about the whole transfer thing, but I'm not sure of what I'm going to do. I got an email from one of my favorite professors yesterday. He brought up a lot of strong points about staying at Bloomfield which will definitely help me to think things out more deeply. He also told me that I should do what is best for Nicole, but I'm not even sure if I know what that is.

I've officially finished a whole year of college. I can't believe it, time really flew. Looking back on everything, I'd say I had a great year and I've grown more than I could have ever imagined, especially since things turned out completely different than I originally expected. I had my last final last Wednesday. The next day I had to drop off some work with my Human Biology professor which marked the beginning of my summer. Mats ended up going to Bloomfield with me so he got to meet her. He also met my English professor since we happened to see him as I was showing him around campus.

Moeima told me about this poem. It's called "Love" and it is by Beau Sai. There are two parts of it I found to be so true. They are as follows:

"we all need to know the relevant things,
because we're all looking for the complete definition of love,
if only we could open our encyclopedia brittanicas
and look up love and know,
but love isn't that easy. "

"why must we associate music with
our love lives?
I'm not trying to be profound here,
I'm just saying that music really takes me
back, way back,
and I can't explain the memory process involved in that"

You know, for someone to be intrigued by you is really something special.

I heard this on General Hospital today "There are doors in life. You either walk through them or they close forever." Thought it was a great quote.

Today I had my final conference for English this semester. I got a 4- on the final. I was thrilled about that. I got a lot of positive feedback about the semester and my professor basically told me that my presence in the class was good. I really loved that class and I think English 106 was probably my most positive college experience yet. I still can't believe I finished a whole semester already. I'm really glad that I ended up in Bloomfield. It's been good for me and I've been doing well so I'm completely satisfied with the way things turned out.

I got bored with all of my previous posts so I decided to delete them. I'm just going to start this whole blog thing over.

On June 24, 2003 I graduated from high school! It was a perfect day. My college plans changed once again. After planning on going to the University of Hartford, to Pace University, to the possibility of going to Union County College, I finally ended up at Bloomfield College in Bloomfield, NJ. I got a letter from Pace two weeks before the beginning of the semeser about housing...I didn't get any. Since I didn't have housing and I didn't get financial aid, I decided that it would be in my best interest to withdrawal from Pace, difficult as it was for me to do. I called up Hunter College, Rutgers, Montclair, and just about every other school in the area to see if they were accepting applicants, but they weren't. Then I found out about Bloomfield College through Fastweb. They were still accepting applicants, so after speaking with an admissions counselor on the phone I submitted an application even though I wasn't really expecting to get in. On August 27th I got a call from Bloomfield. I got accepted! As soon as I hung up the phone I started jumping up and down and screaming. I was so happy! It felt like things were beginning to fall into place. Classes started on the third, but since everything happened so last minute, I didn't get to start until the fifth. The first two days were a little tough for me since I was running around trying to get everything in order for the semester without knowing what I was doing, where anything was, or who anyone was. I actually cried the day before I started classes and almost gave up on Bloomfield because I was so frustrated and felt so disoriented. Mom told me to give it a chance before I gave up so I did. I am so glad I took her advice. On my first day of classes I had Math and English which were great. I had such a good feeling about Bloomfield in general that day. Although things didn't start out exactly how I had imagined, I am really happy that I ended up in Bloomfield. I love my classes, my professors are great, and I've met a lot of people. Even though I sometimes wonder what it would have been like had I gone to Pace, I know things worked out for the best. Things have been going pretty smoothly so I think it's going to be a good year. I'm still unsure about whether or not I'm going to transfer to a different school next year, but I'm going to take things one step at a time.

I got a car! In August I went to the auto auction Uncle Carlos recommended and I got a black 1999 Pontiac Grand Am GT coupe. I love it. It had everything I wanted plus low mileage. It's the perfect car for me. It's nice to be able to go anywhere and have a car that I can call my own.

Just this past weekend I took a trip up to CT to visit Janine at the University of Hartford. I had a great weekend with her. It would have been so much fun to go to college with her, but UHA just wasn't the place for me. I like visiting her there but I can't see myself going there.

Paul sent me an email today and it turns out that after his vacation in San Diego he's coming home for good. I was pretty surprised because I thought he had two years left with the navy. He said that he's going to start school and work once he comes home. I'm happy for him, it seems like he's happy and has everything together. I can't wait to hang out with him once he comes back to the Bronx.

Omar and I are going to the movies this Saturday. We met outside of Pace on the last day of orientation while I was waiting for Dad and Eduardo to come pick me up. He seems like a nice guy. We'll see what happens.