A young female college student majoring in English with an interest in poetry and ties to Smith College sets off for New York City and a summer internship at a prominent magazine.
This is the story of Sylvia Plath's character, Esther Greenwood, in "The Bell Jar." It is also, coincidentally, the story of my upcoming summer. But while I do love Plath and her semi-autobiographical novel, I certainly hope the parallels between Esther and I end here.
Where our heroine slowly went insane, I hope to have the summer of my life.
It started in March, when I submitted applications online to my favorite magazines. A day later, two lines showed up in my inbox, the second line being: "Are you planning on visiting NYC soon?"
Suddenly I was waking up at 6 a.m., pulling on my knee-length black skirt, ruffled blouse and cardigan, sleeping on a Greyhound bus and arriving in New York City, completely and totally alone.
Then began the nauseating combination of aggressively fast elevator rides to and from the 32nd story of a New York skyscraper, the 15-minute interview I traveled more than 13 hours round-trip for, and the phone call to my mother explaining that, yes, they only wanted to talk to me for 15 minutes.
Two weeks later, another two-line e-mail, the second line being: "Please let me know if you accept, and we can start talking details."
After a whirlwind of more applications and paperwork, I find myself finally (mostly) situated, with the most exciting and terrifying summer of my life looming ahead. It's a good thing I tend to handle terror pretty well.
It seems scary, sure. Me, with no parents, in New York City for the summer, is pretty scary.
But I will (hopefully) be living with my tie to Smith College, my older sister, who is a junior at Smith. An economics major, she will be interning in the business part of an NYC floral company, and I couldn't ask for a better person to share a summer (and a closet) with.
And I will (hopefully) love to look out of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the 32nd-story office I will be working in five days every week.
And I will (hopefully) make friends in the city that will show me the time I have always dreamed of.
When I think about my summer, I do get that aggressively fast elevator feeling in the pit of my stomach for a little. But then I think about the lunch I had in Bryant Park after my interview, and the prospect of a summer spent following the dreams I've had since middle school, and my New York-dwelling friend's insistence that "summer in the city is kinda ridiculously amazing."
Maybe I'm a little too nervous, or maybe I'm romanticizing my upcoming summer a little too much.
But I do know it's an experience I will never forget (thank you Mom and Dad!).
Caitlin Sellers is a junior majoring in English and is the Daily Collegian's arts editor for the spring 2010 semester. Her e-mail address is cas5505@psu.edu.
