New York City Day 52: Good Morning America

Today was greeeeeat! We got up early and headed to Good Morning America studios. We walked past a loaded crowd of people and security and wounded up walking through a big black door. Once we got in the door, we signed in and were escorted into the studio. The studio was...medium sized guess, lol. I'm mostly going off of my perception of what I expected the show to look like. I expected to be fairly big. But that typically happens when I'm on someone's set; I imagine it bigger than it need's to be, lol. No but really, the set was pretty packed to my surprise. Robin Robert's looked amazingly beautiful! We kept shifting standing positions because they were shooting from all different locations.

I saw "The Couch" and thought to myself, "I want to sit up there." Lo and behold, I would get my opportunity. After Robin finished one of her segments, a production person said, "Ladies with Jacque Reid? The Reid Group? Someone's here to see you" It was as if your father is waking up the 5 year old version of yourself on a freezing Saturday morning and telling you Santa Clause is downstairs! You don't know what to do with yourself. Lol, I felt so official!

I walk up to "The Couch," introduce myself and sit with Ms. Roberts. She was so genuine and beautiful and kind hearted and I just wanted to put her in my pocket and carry her around with me! We spoke with her briefly and it was a few minutes I'll never forget.

Later on in the show, we saw Emerald Lagasse, Edward Norton, and Joss Stone! I saw Emerald stepping into the back room after he was just outside cooking up...something! Afterwards, Joss Stone hit the stage briefly and Edward Norton was interviewed shortly afterward. Edward was fairly small and he gave me Wolverine with his hair! Joss as well lost some weight. I don't remember her being that small...she still had her shoes off, lol. Demeshia and I were singing when Joss was singing and her drummer had a lot of fun with us. He was saying that we can hold a tune, lol. When suggested that Demeshia and I could take her back up singers spot, her male singer replied, "never!" Lol, whatever!

After Edward Norton, Joss performed about 2 songs that were amazing and that I am considering buying! I love her! We headed to NBC to do our last teleprompter reading. This time it was a little less pressure. We had actual video to go with our readings and that was fun. I really enjoyed this one.

Afterwards, we went to Ditch Plains. It's our last Tuesday going to Ditch Plains until we leave New York :-(. On a good note, it was there where Demeshia met the Food Networks' "Chopped" co-host, Marc Murphy. The cool thing about it is that he actually owns Ditch Plains as well as several other restaurants and he was just sitting there with another young lady while he chomped on his own food! Lol, it was great!

Demeshia literally cried! That was cool. I mean, I honestly didn't think she'd cry, buuuuut she did. It was great. He was reeeeeally cool, I mean, he play's a cool judge on the show so that was refreshing to see that he was so cool. So, she cried told him she loved him, we left, she composed herself, we returned with her camera to get a picture of her and him, we left, we then returned to get his information, lol! He was more than amped to give us his info.

The funny thing about the whole situation was LITERALLY, 10 minutes prior, Demeshia and I were on the train talking about this experience as a whole. We were talking about how thankful we are to God. I tell you one thing, God is funny.

I remember when Ms. Reid told us we had to gather $1,000 before coming to New York. It was a struggle for mer personally. I planned ahead, but life happened. Then I got to New York with $100 to my name. The day my mother dropped me off at the train station, she literally stopped at a local jewelry shop and sold some of her PRIZED jewelry. That was a big moment for me to take in. She then gave me $100 dollars.

Another think I learned is that, faith without works is dead. As the week's progressed, I started calling up people left and right to help support me while in New York. The response was amazing. People literally gave what they could. Even Ms. Reid opened her heart and gave me some cash. Then one day, I sat down and thought about the amount of money I received from those various people and the funny thing is, it all amounted to be roughly $1,000. Lol, that's why I laugh. Because God looked out for me. He didn't do it the way I wanted or expected, but he DID it HIS way and in HIS timing and HIS timing was perfect.

It's finally starting to set in on me of how much this experience has changed my mindset, my life and my goals. Honestly, words cannot express how thankful I am for this experience. So, I guess you'll just have to see and look for me at the top.

New York City Day 51: Last Monday

Oh why'd the week have to start off with a summer cold?! Ugh! I have strep throat and am not too pleased about that. I think Demeshia and Lauren F. did this to me! To make matters worse, I forced myself to drink a substance that I've protested against in the pastel tea! I drank two cups of that vile liquid and to no avail, I'm still sick.

I went to the Grio and continued working on a slideshow about man bags...I'll be doing a MOS (Man on the street) interviews this Sunday about the Olympics so that should be pretty cool I think.

After the Grio, I came back home ate some noodles and took a nap for about 2 1\2 hours. I hope tomorrow isn't as bad.

This will be my last blog that I write for the Reid Group on a Monday. It's a sad day indeed, but all good thing's must come to an end so I hear. On a lighter note, we've just been told that we're going to be going to GMA in the AM! We're going to have the opportunity to meet the astounding Ms. Robin Roberts! So follow back up with me tomorrow and see how that experience was!

New York City Day 50: Less than a week!

Aaaaaah! Today marks the 1st day of the last week that we'll be here :-( It's crazy! I don't know what to think at this point! This is the last Sunday I'll be writing for the Reid Group :-(. Well, before it get's too emotional, let me go on to tell you about my day.

I made it a mark for me to be productive today and it was a success! I washed clothes and applied for several jobs in Atlanta. I didn't want to be too picky with the job application process. I feel like I need to be back out there in the work force so I'm taking this job thing pretty serious! Afterwards, I did Aleisha's hair. After that, I went with Demeshia to get some soul food she was craving this restaurant called "Amy Ruth" because she recently discovered it. I didn't get anything, I'm not really big on soul food personally, lol, I just watched her indulge!

She tricked me into going to the park with her! We went to the park on 116th, Morning Side Park. It is amazing park! That park changed my life! I mean, that has got to be the best park I've seen! That's one of the many thing's I'm going to miss about New York. I must say so. We fed the birds and everything and it was pretty cool.

We got back to the dorm and I looked up some material for fresh features. I was just looking for back up stories for the most part. I haven't worked on the website since the first week so this is a new thing for me almost, lol. It's going well so far.

We got back and I was helping out with the documentary. That's still an ongoing process, lol. It was a productive day! I love to ave productive days!

New York City Day 49: PRETTY Adventurous

Today was entertaining! Well, for starters we went to the church where 61 year old Richard Schwartz was killed last night. We reported there. We did a stand up and a bridge and it was interesting. The death was still pretty fresh in the community and it was very evident because people were standing around as the construction workers were trying to fix up the area. Schwartz died when scaffolding nearly buried him. The scaffolding fell through the roof of the building, flew through the window and landed on him. It was a sad story.

Neighbors watched us as we were reporting and some people didn't know what happened and some people recanted what happened. It was interesting. A mail woman walked past and was asking us what we did. She was very sad to hear of his death. She said he was a good man and that she use to deliver mail to his house. It made me kind of sad. I guess events like that don't really take place in that community.

After that, we went back to NBC and listened in at Pat Battle's husband, Anthony Johnson spoke with us. He's a CAU alum! He was very colorful in his speech! Him and Pat reminded me of each other, lol, it was so adorable! I think the highlight for me was when he kept esteeming her! In almost everything he said, he kept referencing Pat and saying how she's the best this and that and this and that and this and that! It was cute!

Some thing's that stood out in his speech was:

• ·      Be able to simplify, break it down and tell a story
• Put yourself in the mind of the victim
•   Look at the scene around you. Identify what was going on.
• DON’T START OUT WITH BORING FACTS. LEAVE THAT TO THE END
• There’s different kind’s of reporters. There may be an investigative, speech and feature reporter. 
• LET ME KNOW WHY THIS STORY IS SO BIG AND WHY WE SHOULD CARE THEN I WANT TO KNOW WHY
• You earn peoples respect by not harassing them

Later on in the day Demeshia dazzled me and Sequoyah in makeup! I did Sequoyah's hair and Demeshia handled the makeup department. We did a mini photo shoot and it was soooo fun! Take a look at some of the pic!

New York City Day 48: Humbling good news

Well, what do I say? Today was, a little bit more than amazing! When I was waiting for the train, I saw Faith Nunley. She works at the HR department at NBC. She's in her second year of graduate school here in New York and she works at NBC! We were talking about our experience at NBC and she was telling me about people that I should meet and keep in contact with. It's funny because the people she was talking about are people that we'v met already. She really wanted me to take advantage of the experience here and she wanted me to stay in contact. No worries Faith, I will!

I went to the Grio afterwards and nobody was there! Literally, 5 people decided not to come in today. It was cool because people seemed to be more relaxed and friendly. It was a pretty quick day actually.  As I was sitting there, Ms. Reid texted me and told me to meet her by the elevator. As I was reading her text, I proceeded to walk to meet her, but she was already behind me, lol. We meet up and she surprises me with a fairly nice gift. I didn't know what to say. I was so humbled. It's funny to me that she did that. I wasn't expecting it at all!

She humbled me today. I'm truly thankful for that. And I was able to spread some good news to the family and friends (well some people, you can't tell everybody your good news for SEVERAL reason).

God was speaking to me all day to day. I mean really. He was revealing so many things to me today. I can't really put into words how amazing that was!

Later on in the day at the Grio, Jonothan left the Grio. Jonothan was an intern and today was his last day. I'm really going to miss him, I must say so. He was funny and he was an extremely valuable intern at the Grio. Him leaving made me realize that next week is our last week. I mean, we all have to leave at some point, that saddens me!!!!! I don't want to leave! I mean today really made me realize that this entire experience is about to be over!

New York City Day 47: Last Day Off

Today was bittersweet, lol. It was sweet because we had another day off, but it was bitter because it may be our last day off until we leave :-(

Earlier, a few of us went to Ditch Plains and ate. Afterwards, a few of us went to see a friend in the city. It was pretty cool. We stayed late and it started to rain; once we hopped the train of course. We wounded up taking a taxi home from 125 and MLK Drive, lol.

Today was also nerve-wrecking, for personal reasons. I bought my greyhound bus ticket today and I got nervous afterwards. I realized that I literally have 20 dollars left to my name and that it has to last me for the remainder of time I spend here. That's not a lot of money at all so I don't feel too comfortable with that. I feel like I've exhausted all of my resources, but it wouldn't hurt to ask again I guess. It's funny because, I came here with the same problem and I kept a smile on for about a week. But one day while we were in the conference room, it took everything I had to hold back tears (tears that I eventually let pour once I hit the dorm). I had no money to do anything with. I mean, I went so far as to ask people who I never would have asked money for, for money. It got crazy.

God is amazing though. He made a way for me and blessed me with funds. I was so thankful. So, I need him to step through for me this time as well.

I've been going through situations like this for far too long. I mean, people complain about how "broke" they are and how they're so poor and all this other craziness. Meanwhile, they're ordering food everyday or rocking iPhones and the latest everything. It's pure insensitivity if you ask me. It angers me because they wouldn't know what poverty looked like if struck them in the face. And I'm definitely not blaming them for having resources, but at the same time people need to be more conscientious about what comes out of their mouths.

But I say all that to say that I had an epiphany. I realized that in order to get something you never had, you have to do something you never did. I cannot, will not and refuse to continue to live like this and repeat this cycle of not having any resources. I simply refuse. I can't continue this generational curse. I mean, that's why I'm here! I'm here because I want to see a change in my family for the better and I want to be successful not only for me, but for them. So something has to give and that something has got to give TODAY!

New York City Day 46: Change of plans

So yesterday, Alexis sent me an assignment and told me to look up iconic African American hairstyles. I looked them up today and didn't expect to be working on it the entire day, lol! I really didn't! My fingers were so tired. I literally spent 8 hours of my day and looked up pictures for these hairstyles. I didn't want to just put any picture up there, I wanted to put up good hair pictures that said something! It was very intense and I'm still not done. I wounded up having around 36 pictures. Friday I'm suppose to put some really good captions in them. 

After that, Sequoyah and I headed down to the CNN center for our meeting with Roland Martin. We get there and NO ROLAND, lol. We were literally about to cross the street and find ourselves there when we got a text from Briana/an email form Demeshia saying that it's been canceled. I was a little frustrated by that because I could have gone straight to my dorm from the Grio, BUT, Sequoyah and I decided to continue our journey of sightseeing, lol. 

We went to the Apple store and met a pretty cool employee. He was REALLY cool and VERY funny! He invited us to this lil function happening later on (every guy we meet is always inviting us out to some party! We met a crossing guard that was suppose to tell us how to find a steak-n-shake and he told us where to find a better version of steak-shake while also inviting us to this each party for $65! Crazy). The guy's name was Jebel. He was cool. 

We went to FAO Schwartz after that and relived some childhood memories. FAO Schwartz will do that to you though. We went home afterwards. I had my one on one meeting with Frank Miller tonight (in case I didn't tell you, he is also a member of The Reid Group...in a sense). He had an assignment to do a story on all us girls and in order to do that, he had to do an interview. It was interesting. He was smiling for the most part of the interview, which was new to me because I rarely see him smile. It was good to see it, but it made me wonder what he was thinking. I really wish he'd learn to open up more, but I don't know, some people are just good with one on one's.

Later on in the evening, me and a few of the other girls had a little party, lol. We were playing around and watching Beyonce videos, dancing to Michael Jackson, free styling, lol! It was great! We all need to let loose every once in a while!