Person you were and the person you’re becoming.

I guess this is the part where I give a cliché moment of describing myself? Alright well, my name is Joe, but I have been called Jay for years so I prefer it over my actual name. I’m not really from the Bronx. But I’ll explain; I was born in White Plains, raised in Yonkers, but I feel like I grew into the person I am today in the Bronx with my four years of high school at Mount Saint Michael Academy. The only other facts about myself that I can give is that I am Straight Edge (I abstain from alcohol, drugs and smoking), Vegan (do not eat or use any product tested, or made from an animal), I love seeing and getting tattoos and I am an activist in both animal and gay rights. I believe firmly that animals should never be abused and ones sexual preferences shouldn’t be judged in a negative light.

Now onto my blog, I could’ve wrote something about how I am homesick (which I am not yet) or about how I miss the girl back home, but I decided to ask and try to answer a question I once asked myself 2 years ago and answered before I left for Oswego.

After being accepted to Oswego State, I kept wondering what the future was going to hold. Formerly being at Westchester Community College, I established myself around the campus, amongst the student body and the faculty as a driven, hard working person who wanted better for himself and those around him. For example, WARY 88.1 was the radio station I was on. It quite possibly have been one of the biggest turning points in my entire collegiate career. I didn’t join because a love for radio, rather for a place to hangout and meet new people. After a month of being there, I switched my major from journalism to broadcasting and I had an opportunity to set myself to become something with something I became passionate about.

I remember reading a few blog entries on here for people whom interned down in Manhattan. Reading their blogs, it seemed that they thought that the city was the best place on the planet. Granted, it’s a place with a lot of opportunities, but it can also be someone’s biggest downfall. Not to sound negative, but fact is, some people get so caught up with working in Manhattan, they lose sight of why they first were there. I certainly had that advantage (being 15-20 minutes away) when I had the opportunity to intern at Sirius XM Satellite Radio under the king of all media; Howard Stern, to not be distracted by the “New Yorker attitude“ since I already had one. To this day, the internship still stands as the biggest highlight of my life. I mean imagine this for a second. You come into work, and you share the elevator (although it’s at 4am) with either Robin Quivers or Fred Norris, as you walk through the Sirius lobby, and into (what they called) the Stern compound and walk to a section strictly for the interns and work side by side with Gary “BaBa Booey” Dell’Abate. It’s definitely one of the most overwhelming experiences in the first week of work.

Going from journalism to broadcasting as a major, then in less than a year, you intern for the biggest name in the business, just shows how determined I am to make it in this business. I helped bring more attention to the broadcasting and communications departments at my school through my hard work and I hope to leave behind a good ethic for those to someday follow in and do something great.

Through this brief history of myself, it brings me to the point I wanted to make in my blog. At WCC, I was one of the well known students. People knew me by first and last name and the good reputation that followed. I’ve given speeches to prospective students, taught students how to work the on-air studio at WARY, trained them on Adobe Audition, interned for Stern, and doing all this while maintaining a 3.5 GPA. To some this is easy, to me, being someone who had no intent of even going to college in high school, this is a BIG deal. I showed to myself that if I put my mind to something, I can accomplish it.
Now you may be asking, where is he going with this? Well, at my old school, I was somebody, now onto Oswego, I am at square one all over again. Oswego has given me a fresh start, something I wanted since January 2010 when I was accepted to the school. But now that I am here, I feel like this fresh start may not be as beneficial as I thought.

I come into WNYO, and they do things completely different than they did down at WARY. But unlike most people, I like the challenge, and more importantly, I like to learn about my new environment because then, I can do for WNYO what I did for WARY and help try to make this program even better than what it was. However, the question still linger in my mind, what am I going to do to make a name for myself here? I’m aiming to getting good grades, aiming to bring WNYO up to that “next level” and become a Zeta Beta Tau brother and help bring a great fraternity to that next level as well.

So far my first few weeks here have been pretty eventful with joining WNYO, Rush Week with ZBT and just getting used to my new environment. Next blog, I hope I’ll be talking about what it’s like to try and join a frat, but until then I leave you with a quote that I got from a fortune cookie at Wonton House:

“Not having a goal is more to be feared than not reaching one.”

One thought on “Person you were and the person you’re becoming.

  1. Jay, this was a great first post. I’m glad you’re finding your niche at Oswego. WNYO is a great organization and ZBT is a great fraternity. Just one thing…having a certain sexual preference does not make you straight or gay. One’s sexual orientation is what would define one as straight or gay. Even then, that is only if that person identifies in that way. I just want to make sure you have the terminology correct. Otherwise, welcome to Oswego and I hope you find your place.

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