Talking for a living. Making people happy. Making people laugh.
"Create Compelling Content, Tell Great Stories." - that is the mission statement of Ryan Seacrest and his production company. The company that brought us the never-ending "Keeping up with the Kardashians."
Radio's a badass career, let's be honest. We get to be ourselves, talk you through your day, give people free stuff and make their day - help the community, it honestly is a dope job. But some logistics of it are what we pay in return for being able to drink on the job.
While living in College Station, TX during my first year of programming for iHeartRadio, I really did enjoy it. I was born a big-city girl, and I loved it at the time, but sometimes you just have to live in a small market, that doesn't even have a Cheesecake Factory, Whole Foods Market, a SuperTarget or more than two Chik-Fil-A's.. (I'm sure this will benefit me somewhere down the line).
But the one thing, I absolutely would change about this city, how all the apartment leases are on 'semester deals.' Meaning that your lease is for as long as the semester, since this is a college town.
But do remember, for the very small percentage of young professionals here - that doesn't work into our game plan. I arrived in College Station in early August 2015 - I subleased from someone I found off Craigslist, their lease ended July 2016. The apartment I was going to move to, their lease didn't begin until August 22, 2016 -- meaning I would be out of a living space for over a month. And as hard as I tried, no complexes had any availability or would pro-rate me that one month.
So what did a young professional, with a small dog and no family for at least 2,000 miles do? Rented a hotel room - that allowed pets - for one month.
How much did that come down to? Let me not break your heart.
A lot of people are asking, 'why didn't you stay with a friend?'
1. Most of my friends are college students - meaning they were back home during summer break for this time, and not here.
2. I have a small chihuahua - and just feel that was way too much to ask of someone to let me crash with them for a month + my dog.
3. My family raised me, above anything else, to always be independent.
Then they may ask 'why didn't you sublease from someone on Craigslist just for that summer semester?'
1. I wasn't paying rent on two places - I had my original apartment until July.
2. Honestly, most college student subleasors posting on Craigslist are just.. difficult, unprofessional.. and we could go on.
My Experience:
So I'm in a decent hotel for a month straight - I've stayed in a hotel for like 3-4 days max, never four continuous weeks. So what I learned was:
1. You really can just walk in any hotel offering free breakfast, and they'd never know if you actually were staying there or not - because the staff is always different.
2. Doesn't matter the 'star-rating' of the hotel, drug deals and prostitution are happening everywhere at every level of income in America.
3. Just a week in hotel humble abodes will make you feel like Zack and/or Cody.
4. Though I know it's their job, everyday when I get home from work and have to walk past the front desk, I don't need you to smile at me and ask me how my day's going.... hush..
Yes, I broke the bank.
I was and still am financially stable, but I would NEVER do that again, I spent many days just watching "Forensic Files" and ordering room service (ran up my bill even more :( ...) WHEN I could've just been smart instead of being boughy.
What Did I Learn?
Never live in a college town, again.