This summer a dream internship with Lucky magazine moved me from Austin, Texas, where I’ve spent all 21 years of my life, to New York City for the summer. Come along for the ride and follow me through this column as I take on all that the city has in store for me. I’ll share tips I’ve picked up along the way about everything from how to pack (stop, drop and roll people!) to dating to fitting in (or standing out) and so much more.

Tip #1 – If you have the means, go where your industry takes you during your undergrad years to prepare yourself for post-grad life.

The wisest advice I’ve ever been given was from one of my professors my freshman year of college. He pushed up his elbow-patched sleeves and sternly looked me in the eye and said, “Go where your industry takes you, even if you’re scared out of your mind — Go.” As a journalism major aspiring to work in women’s magazines, I put my college education to good use and figured that at some point my industry would take me to New York; I guess I just didn’t think it’d be before graduation.

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I don’t know how many times I’ve griped about the girls down the hall who pump heinous music at the most inconvenient times of the day, but we’ve all had a go of annoying neighbor syndrome.

So much so in fact, that one particularly skeeved neighbor decided to start a website about it.

Rottenneighbor.com is a site that blacklists bad music-blasters, stilletto-wearing tap dancers, drunken hall-pukers, and don’t-give-a-damn landlords.

It’s actually kind of genius, if you think about it. When hunting for a new place, you get to see the bathroom, the kitchen, the bedroom, but you’ll never get see through walls.

How do you really know what you’re getting yourself into?

RottenNeighbor makes sure you won’t drop big bucks on a dream apartment that turns quickly into a nightmare via your first run-in with the crazies next door.

You can also check out the super situation, which is ideal to someone like me, who spent a summer in the city getting completely ignored about my faulty stove and the flying cockroaches. Read More »