Archive for May, 2021

Quarantine Contemplation: There’s more.

Tuesday, May 25th, 2021

Since I was a kid, I knew that I was expected by my family and those around me to pursue the path of higher education. Apart from entertaining the occasional daydream or mental movie reel of living the life of an up-and-coming YouTube talent discovery, I’d never really considered doing anything that veered away from the straight path to college and beyond.

As is the case for many others, I had spent some 16 years busting my butt in school, and during those 16 years, my academic performance shaped much of my identity, and in turn, I had shaped a shocking amount of my identity around excelling in my studies. Yet, despite being in the school scene for nearly ¾ of my life, it wasn’t until that fateful day on Wednesday, May 19, 2021, that I realized a suffocating truth: I had no idea of who I was outside of being a student. Correction: I *still* have no idea who I am outside of being a student.

I realized that I feel overwhelmed by the state of being a student and feel pitifully underwhelmed by simply being me.

Last week on Wednesday, May 19, 2021, thousands of NYU undergraduate and graduate-level degrees and certificates were officially conferred by the University President Andrew Hamilton and the dozen or so deans and faculty of all the students’ respective schools. Last Wednesday, I graduated…virtually. On any other year, you would find the thousands of graduates sit around the field of Yankee Stadium, and honestly, as I stared into my laptop screen with my black cap on, gold tassel dangling in the corner of my eye, and cat napping on the couch next to me, that’s all I could envision.

Yankee Stadium or my mom’s living room: that is the question.

Yet, despite the virtual nature of the ceremony, I acknowledge that my graduation was a time of joy for my family and friends. My mom flooded everyone’s Facebook feed with cap-and-gown pictures from our private photoshoot in our kitchen, and I responded to all of them with a single post because, let’s be honest, no one has time to respond to every single “Congratulations”. I signed off the post with the oh-so-colorful ending, “Onto the next chapter”, along with a hashtag with the name of my graduate school, #UniversityofGroningen.

Yes, that’s right. Here I am, eternally tearful about not knowing what is meaningful to me outside of my academics and still, I decided to pursue graduate school of my own accord. Don’t get me wrong. I’m very grateful for this opportunity, and I am looking forward to deepening my understanding of my field of study, but what I’m having some real trouble with are the undercurrents of emotion that don’t come across in that Facebook post or my LinkedIn updates or even in my conversations with family and friends—the dread of a quarter-life identity crisis and the fear of losing myself in the books and the grades and the resume and the dollar signs.

It wasn’t until Wednesday, May 19, 2021, that I realized that I don’t know what really matters to me or what makes me feel fulfilled. Like, I have literally spent 10 minutes trying to respond to the simple question of “What kind of music do you like?”. I’ve had a half-hour-long internal debate about whether I prefer thin-cut or thick-cut onion rings. It would take me months to figure out my graduation outfit (thank GOODNESS, I could opt for pajamas instead of a dress this year).

Here’s to hoping my own Path to Self-Discovery is as sublime as this piece by SH Visuals.

As minuscule and as ridiculous as these questions might seem, upon over a year and a half of quarantine contemplation and introspection, I’ve come to realize that the reason why I have such a hard time with answering these queries and making decisions is that they are inherently based on your identity and personality. And I’ve come to realize that I’m not nearly as in tune with myself as I thought that I was.

Last week, before I graduated, a supervisor of mine proposed a challenge for me. After waiting patiently for my super obscure answer to her clear-cut “What kind of music do you like?” question, she encouraged me to take this summer to think about my “deeper whys”. 

Why do I want to go to grad school?

Why do I like my area of study?

Why do I do anything that I do?

At this moment in time, it would take me weeks or an all-nighter to answer these interview questions interrogations. But I am hoping to take these few months before the next chapter to really figure some myself out. I know that there is more to me than being a student, employee, volunteer, and member of all of the organizations that I’m a part of. There’s more. I know it.

Now, it’s time to figure out what that is.


I’ve never been much of a spa or salon kind of person, but over the last year and a half, I realized just how good it feels to indulge in some extra self-care every now and then. So, go out there and treat yourself at Unimited~

by Christianne Evasco

Christianne is a recent graduate of New York Univerity, with a major in Psychology and minors in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies (CAMS) and Creative Writing. Starting September 2021, she will be continuing her education at the University of Groningen in Groningen, Netherlands. Christianne’s endeavors are fueled by her passion to use her voice to help others harness the power of their own voices through therapeutically-creative means and to connect people through language and cultural exchange. In her free time, you can find her catnapping with her cats.

For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services.  

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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Rapid Revival Restaurant Review: Bait and Hook

Thursday, May 20th, 2021
Bait & Hook NYC

Here we are, May 19th. Exactly 7 days after May 4th, just like I promised in the last entry of the Covid Cooking Club. To celebrate fact that Covid is now 100% not a threat and nobody should ever worry about it even a little bit, I will be commencing the Rapid Revival Restaurant Reviews, to drum up some support for those poor small business owners who were already going to get destroyed by corporate competition but we’re pretending it’s the pandemic’s fault now. My first target will be the seafood restaurant Bait and Hook, chosen for no other reason than that it was close to me and I’m very lazy.

The layout of the restaurant is very nice, somewhat nautically themed but not nautically themed enough to make people seasick. which apparently happens sometimes. The lights are red, which is pretty weird because it didn’t seem like that kind of establishment. All the waiters are very nice, even when I got pissed at them for not letting me in when I turned up an hour early without any sort of identification. The only real problem is the noise: the music is loud, the people are loud, and the acoustics make it all louder, which means you’ll probably have to shout your order if you want the waiter to actually listen to you.

The house lager is good, and I say that as someone who doesn’t even like beer. As far as I’m concerned most alcohol that isn’t hard cider tastes like varying flavors of fizzy urine, but fortunately this one bucked that trend. It has a mild taste that could be compared to wood if wood tasted good. It also completely obliterated my nostrils after the gas came back up and made me feel like I had been tear gassed, but in a fun and relaxed way.

The Kung Pao Calamari is very tasty. It has both tentacle bits and entire tiny octopi for variety. They’re decently crispy and taste great even without sauce thanks to the seasoning. I tried some of the Kung Pao sauce and it tasted like someone had Kung Powed my tongue, but I guess some people like that sort of thing.

Their most popular food was the lobster roll, which I didn’t order because I don’t like lobster rolls. I had the fish and chips instead. The fish itself was great: white cod with a taste distinct from other fried fish without being too overpowering. The skin was both crunchy and stayed on the meat, and it’s rare to find a fried fish that does both of those. The fries were… fine. Not crispy enough to be french fries or thick enough to be steak fries. I saw someone else eating mashed potatoes and those looked way better.

So the next day I went back and ordered the mashed potatoes. They were, in fact, way better. A good blend between chunky and creamy with a hint of garlic. I also learned it was much less loud outside.

Dessert was gelato, which wasn’t part of the review but they gave me some anyway because they’re nice people. It was good, because it was ice cream. I’m easily please by ice cream.

Verdict: 7.75/10 happy British fish.

(The coupon image is currently broken so just pretend it’s here and go to https://www.campusclipper.com/new/popup1.php?CUP_COD=3047)


By: Alexander Rose

Alexander Rose studies satire at NYU Gallatin and wishes he was actually just Oscar Wilde. He is interested in writing, roleplaying games, and procrastination. Describing himself in the third person like this makes him feel weird.

For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services.  

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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My Junior Year Internship: The Bittersweet Taste of Corporate America

Wednesday, May 12th, 2021

During my semester abroad in Madrid my sophomore spring, I tasked myself with finding an internship for the upcoming summer. My internship search took on a sense of urgency because I knew I couldn’t spend the summer in New York City without income. While I loved visiting my family and my hometown, I felt like I belonged in the city, and I yearned to be there. Sending cover letters into the void was discouraging when each unanswered application felt like a step away from the life I was building in the city. I couldn’t stop comparing myself to people in my classes, who had internships at Citibank and Morgan Stanley lined up before we even arrived in Madrid. 

What finally got me through was, for the second time, a referral from a friend, who gave my resume to her boss with a glowing recommendation. The company was Richard Attias & Associates, an international political and communications consulting firm specializing in high-end global events. 

Walking through Midtown Manhattan on my lunch break

After two Skype interviews, I was offered the position of Research Intern for the Community Team. Our team focused on event speakers and guests. The events I worked on included the Future Investment Initiative, aka “Davos in the Desert,” a financial and economic conference in Saudi Arabia; the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, the largest gathering of Heads of State outside the United Nations; as well as the Global Cybersecurity Forum, Women in Corporate Leadership, and the Olympism in Action Forum.

On paper, the job sounded glamorous. In reality, it was monotonous. I spent all day, every day trying to find business leaders and government officials’ contact information on the internet so that we could invite them to our events. I would put this information in Excel spreadsheets or Salesforce then send event invitations through Salesforce.

I worked a full 40-hour workweek that summer. For the first time, I felt independent, like a person living in the world rather than a child who relied on her parents for every rent payment and medical bill. Even though I was scraping by each month after paying rent, I still appreciated the independence immensely.

I now knew what it was like to be a young working woman in New York City, taking the subway each morning in sneakers, changing shoes when I got to work, and going to happy hour at 6 pm. I spent the weekday afternoons longing for the weekend. I even found myself looking forward to the start of the fall semester, when my days would have more variety and my mind would be put to use at a level closer to its potential.

A coworker’s Instagram story on a hot summer day

At the same time, this more fully-realized, self-reliant person that I felt myself becoming was scary, maybe because I thought that this monotony was all that was waiting at the other end of the tunnel that was college—a job where I would sit all day and look at spreadsheets. What seemed even scarier was that I felt a comfort in the monotony. After the stress of finding this job, I didn’t want to do another internship search. At Richard Attias, I was paid well, my coworkers were nice (we even had a party with Spanish wine for my birthday), and the environment wasn’t stressful. So I stayed for the entirety of my junior year.

I think this feeling, this unease I felt in a traditional corporate environment, is part of what planted in my mind the idea of going abroad again. During my junior year, when I wasn’t working, I began leaning into my creative interests. I enrolled in a photography class. I was still studying for the LSAT—I wasn’t ready to take the full leap into a more artistic and nomadic life. However, I was ready to take small steps toward living a life full of creativity and helping others.

Internship Search Tip:

Don’t be afraid to follow up after an interview. When I hadn’t heard back for two weeks after my first interview at Richard Attias & Associates, I sent an email to the supervisor reiterating my interest in the position and why I would be a good fit for the role. Less than a day later, I was invited for a second interview.


Students can save on smoothies, sandwiches and more at Greenwich Marketplace with this coupon

By Marisa Bianco

Marisa graduated from NYU in May 2020, summa cum laude, with degrees in International Relations and Spanish. She grew up in Nebraska, but she is currently living in Córdoba, Spain, where she works as an English teacher. You can find her eating tapas in the Spanish sun while likely stressing about finding her life’s purpose.


For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services.  

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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The Covid Cooking Club: Chapter 8: Dessert

Tuesday, May 4th, 2021

The Covid Cooking Club

Chapter 8: Dessert

Chocolate Cake - Preppy Kitchen
The Cake is a Lie! And other sayings from 2008.

Dessert is the least important and therefore best part of any meal. A good dessert will make up for a meal full of bland “healthy” garbage, while a bad dessert won’t really affect anything because you can just choose to not eat it. Unfortunately, I have literally no dessert-related advice to give. I was told to outline my series of blog posts before writing them, and I chose dessert as the last topic because I think I’m much funnier than I actually am. The fact that I did not actually have anything to say on the subject escaped my mind until the last moment. I figured I could buy myself some time to experiment by creating a low-effort fake chapter for last week, but after doing that I forgot about it until right now. The only dessert I know how to make with any degree of competence is cake, and I can’t actually do that because I only have an oven. Also it tells you how to make it on the box. Honestly there’s no reason to even make dessert when you live right next to a Trader Joe’s. They have these great ripoff Tim-Tams with a complicated name that I can’t actually remember because they stopped selling them. That’s a good thing because I would absolutely have given myself diabetes if I had unlimited access to them. Honestly I’ll probably end up doing that anyway, but at least it’ll be name-brand.

Looking back on it, this was a pretty stupid idea for an article series. For one thing, I’m pretty sure I’ve only genuinely contributed two recipes anyone can’t find immediately online, and one of them was literally just “put some bread in a bun.” And for people to reach those recipes they would have to put up with my exaggerated obnoxious authorial personality, which is a feat few can manage. Actually, this entire column is counterproductive to the very idea of this website since you can’t even use the coupons for home cooking. Fortunately, Andrew Cuomo agrees with me and has decided to unilaterally end the lockdown starting Wednesday, which he apparently has the power to do or something? Anyway seeing at how masterfully he managed the nursing home situation I can guarantee that we’ll all be fine, which is why I’m switching over to restaurant reviews next week. Because let’s be honest, you don’t really want to cook, do you? (“You” here refers to a genericized reader and not you as a person. Don’t feel insulted. I love you.) Cooking is messy and takes time and you usually fail. Most people who cook that aren’t professional chefs only do it because they can’t afford to eat out. The rest do it because being unable to provide for yourself is one those embarrassing social qualities that causes reasonable people to look down on you, like not washing your hands or voting Republican. In my case I do it because it’s easier than resolving my crippling sense of inferiority towards my family by actually talking to them. I’d be shocked if even a single person used any of the advice I’ve given, and I’d be even more shocked if it actually helped them in any way. If you actually enjoyed reading these, I’d like to apologzie for tricking you into wasting your time.

You should still totally read my restaurant reviews though.

https://www.campusclipper.com/new/popup1.php?CUP_COD=4019

Alexander Rose studies satire at NYU Gallatin and wishes he was actually just Oscar Wilde. He is interested in writing, roleplaying games, and procrastination. Describing himself in the third person like this makes him feel weird.

For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services.  


At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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