During the summer of 2023, I’ll be traveling to New York from 6/21-6/27. My plan for the trip is to work with Ray Walker of NBC News. He’s a news reporter and media associate who covers local trending topics in the Brooklyn area. I and Ray plan on shooting a documentary story on local black music and fashion designers that are from the Brooklyn area. I’ll be doing the main camera work for documentaries as well as editing.
When I got in view of the massive skyscrapers from my window seat something in me just click and got massively inspired. My perception of a regular city was different from what I was seeing in NYC. The world seemed so much bigger when I was roaming through the streets of Manhattan. I felt like there was a box that was lifted when I was just walking down the street. The biggest eye-opening experience I had, while I was visiting, was just seeing the culture of the people. You had every type of person walking down the street. It was just constant change on every corner.
Being in NYC for a week gave me a different perfect from a day-to-day living situation. You have to be able to handle your finances well but also adapt quickly to situations. The city makes you tougher and coming back to Ohio I felt and still have that feeling of grit and grind that NYC brings to you.
On the first day of filming my documentary, I went to a local park in the heart of Brooklyn. This was my first recorded interview for my documentary and I was skeptical and so interested at what some people would say. My first interview was with a group of teenagers. One boy and one girl. They were from Brooklyn and had such a different upbringing and story compared to mine. They had to fight for a lot of things that I would have taken for granted. From early on they had to deal with violence from peers and a school system that was underfunded and couldn’t do much to help. I visited their school and was able to see and put into perspective how they lived during the school year. I thought this interview was so important because early perspectives on life in childhood and especially in your teenage years can shape who you are as an adult. The interaction just really had me thinking about my own life and how blessed I was for a supportive school system and friends growing up.
On my third day, I went to coney island beach to do some more interviews. This time I was hoping to get a mix of different types of people. I was hearing stories from so many different types of people from so many backgrounds. Some college kids were just on vacation with locals who were going through discrimination in their local town. The one interview that stuck with me was an interview I had with a policewoman who didn’t want to be seen on camera. She mention how the youth were just lost and had been let down by their communities. She wanted to see change but couldn’t see it happening. I asked her about her position and how she could help but she went on to mention how she was and has been censored from her job but also even as a child didn’t feel heard.
Doing these interviews I had to think deeply but also quickly to continue the conversation. I had to understand and connect with the person I was interviewing fast and that was something I didn’t have much experience with in the past. After doing so many interviews and being in this difficult situation my speaking skillset has definitely increased and im going to be able to put these new skills to work in the classroom and for my on-campus internship job,
The change and experiences from my time in NYC were something I will never forget and the skill is something I will forever have with me. Being dropped in such a huge city and having to adapt to a new way of transpiration even learning how locals speak was a massive adjustment. But these skills and not just found in NYC. When you go to a new job or a new environment in general you have to be able to adapt and get on the same wave as everyone else. Now that I have a taste for what it’s like to move to a bigger city with more opportunities I now can start getting more of an idea after graduation if and where I want to look for a job. This trip has been nothing short of a blessing and im planning to do a similar one to California next summer.