It's About to Get [Even More] Personal

For those of you who regularly read this blog and don't know me personally, I've decided to share a little more about myself. I know my profile gives you a tiny glimpse, but I figured maybe you deserve more. When I started writing this blog I wanted to keep some distance between this and my personal life, but obviously I've grown more comfortable sharing things with you as time has gone by. I also wanted to retain some anonymity and so I've never mentioned where I work or posted stories I've written.

I'll start out by saying yes, that's my real name. If I chose a pseudonym why would it ever be that one?? My parents are from the Dominican Republic and my younger brother and sister and I were born and raised in the Washington Heights/Inwood section of uptown Manhattan. I finally moved out on my own - to the Bronx - this past June.
I received a bachelor's degree in architectural technology from the New York Institute of Technology and made a major switch when I went for my master's in journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse. Now I work as an assistant research editor at Latina magazine and freelance for the Manhattan Times - my old community's paper - as well as Time Out New York magazine. I'll be posting links to stories available online as they're published and will create a post with past stories soon. Don't be afraid to let me know what you think about them; you'll never be a harsher critic than I am with myself.

I can admit that there are tons of things I don't know, which is both exciting and scary at the same time. I don't have much faith and prefer knowing exactly what's going to happen next. I'm a creative soul who constantly needs to have a project in the works - even if I never follow them through completion. And I always need to carry around pen and paper not only because ideas jump into my head at odd times, but because I could quite possibly possess the worst memory on Earth.

So that's the tiny gist. Now it's your turn to introduce yourselves!

P.S. Pictures of people other than myself will be making appearances every now and then. But that baby is me and not some child of mine. And sitting with me up in that awesome photograph I developed, printed and then scanned myself are my younger brother and sister. Aren't they precious?