Our New York City Adventure

By Melissa Duralia, Senior Account Executive

“Which metro stop do we get off at again?”

“Are you sure we are walking in the right direction?”

The preceding questions could be heard coming from the mouths of the eager TGCers that took on the big apple this past spring break.

High heels, long walks, blustery winds, and not-so-keen senses of direction definitely made our trek around New York City a challenge at times, but the knowledge we gained made all of our wrong turns well worth the trouble.

Speaking on behalf of my fellow TGCers, I couldn’t be more appreciative of our TGC alumnae who took time out of their busy schedules to talk to us. 

From stories of following big city dreams, to moving to New York without knowing a soul, to adjusting to life so different from Chico, we soaked up every word our alumnae spoke.

It was a truly unique experience to be able to see where women who had been in our shoes—as recently as a year ago—had moved on to, and to be able to ask many of the questions that invade our minds as graduation approaches.

I found it particularly interesting to observe the similarities and differences in the post-college paths of our alumnae, whose lives have all led them to companies in New York. Hearing about all of the different paths they took made me realize that I truly cannot predict where I will be five or 10 years, or even just a year from now. 

In my early college years I would stress about making all the “right” decisions and going in the “right” direction, but recently my outlook has changed significantly. I have realized that while it is smart to make well thought out decisions about my future, I shouldn’t stress about never making a wrong turn. It is surprising how often people realize that what they thought was a wrong turn actually pointed them in a wonderful direction.  

For our alumnae, their current jobs may be their first, third or fourth, but they have all taken a variety of routes to now find themselves working for companies such as Tiffany & Co., ABC, W Hotels Worldwide, Hearst Corp., Edelman and Access Communications.  

Taking our alumnae’s advice and career paths into consideration, I feel even less pressure to always make the right turns. Our trip to New York reaffirmed my realization that there is not a perfect or correct career path that I need to make sure I take. Life is full of decisions, jobs and job changes. I know that as long as I work hard, am proactive and maintain my ambition, I will be successful. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that studies show the job market is improving! 

Looks like we are going in the right direction. #Win