Ashley Elizabeth Miller

I feel unappreciated. “To be great is to be misunderstood,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. Am I so, or am I simply naive?

The day started out strong. I scooped myself up from beneath the sheets, scrubbed my teeth and scampered down the stairs with my yoga tote and backpack on hand. I made it through 6:30 a.m. class without sleeping through savasana.

I washed my blonde mane and blew it dry in style. I powdered my cheeks tan and stained my lips deep maroon. I looked hot en route to Starbucks on 73rd.

The 1-train pulled in as I hopped off the subway stairwell’s final step.

The ride uptown to Columbia at 115th was painless. I listened to political chatter the whole ride. And the whole morning. And all night. NPR. The New Yorker Radio Hour. BBC. Reuters. The New York Times. No matter what podcast or station I turned to, the fact was: Donald Trump won the New Hampshire last night. Dear god I pray for democracy.

The day felt wonky and weird. But the meat of mid-afternoon was quite wonderful. Today marked the first of my spring semester reporting class: City Newsroom, a boots-on-the-ground journalism course at Columbia University. We are starting our own online news site. My beat: New York City Politics (more to come).

I set out on Amsterdam Avenue this afternoon and interviewed over twenty-four passing people on the street about their thoughts on Governor Kathy Hochul’s approval rating. I got a million no’s. But twenty-four yes’s. And that’s a win.

“Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” said William Shakespeare.