It has been a sad past couple of days for me,
as most of the other interns at the boutique and
award-winning PR firm I have been interning at in
the Village have already left for the summer. As
in the next few days many of them will be heading
to airports throughout New York to fly home —
Argentina, Denmark, Illinois, Miami, London — and
their departures mark the first small spark of a
dwindling summer fire.
I had the opportunity to spend the majority
of my summer with these wonderful people from all
over the world. We got through the workday together,
bonded at different work events, on our lunch breaks
and during after-work drinks. They are some of the
most self-motivated and ambitious people I have ever
met and I am grateful that I got to know them! However
now it feels like the end of freshman year of college.
You spend some amazing, life-changing months making
friends and connections with wonderful people, and all
of a sudden, the time comes where you will not be able
to see them until the fall semester. It is a hard
adjustment. But if it teaches us anything, it is the
gift to embrace all changes — even those that are hard —
for in the end we will end up where and with whom we
belong.
I was hit with the realization that the curtains
were preparing to close on the summer as I went to leave
for my lunch break. Approaching the front desk I turned
to see whom I was waiting for, until I remembered that I
was the only intern left and the Account Executive I had
been scheduled to go to lunch with was too swamped with
work to leave her desk. Although I knew that I could only
be gone for a little while I decided to walk the few
blocks from the office on Broadway & Bond Street so I
could eat my kale and edamame salad amongst the company
of Washington Square Park.
I selected a not-so-shady spot close to the fountain
and facing the arch. It was a gorgeous day outside, and being
a sun-loving girl I could not pass up the opportunity to soak
in some rays for a good half hour. The park became increasingly
crowded the closer I became to finishing my salad. All types of
people were coming to dine in the park; families, nannies,
international tourists, couples, friends, businesswomen and men,
students. I was more than content to spend my break
people-watching from the bench, until I heard the incessant and
adorable giggles of two small children standing across from the
fountain and somewhat close to me.
These little toddlers were running around delighted, as
a man had set up a station where they could create huge bubbles
with soap and a rope wand. This man’s creativity changed the
atmosphere of this entire side of the park. I was laughing
with the women next to me as the children and their parents
were popping each other’s bubbles and playing around with the
wand. Everyone walking through this section of the park
was smiling.
Never before have I actually experienced such a diversity
of smiles. Although even the dourest of people walked into the
park grimacing from the stress of their jobs, once they reached
the sight of the babies playing with bubbles, or even if a
bubble flew in their direction, the entire structure of their
face would change. The smile would spread all the way up to their
eyes. Company executives were popping bubbles in the park, people
were gathering to snap photos, turning to strangers to share a
smile or a laugh. I ended up joining in on the entertainment as
I noticed, mid-bite, that the biggest bubble I had ever seen was
heading in my direction so it could pop on me and ruin my dress.
No exaggeration, I leapt from my seat and let it pass by me. These
were really not the cutesy size bubbles one would normally think of.
I had to get closer to the scene anyway and take some
photos of my own. Seeing how one man’s idea to bring bubble
soap and a rope to Washington Square Park at lunch time could
make so many people’s days — my own included — was something
so simple and beautiful itself that I wanted to remember
this feeling. I had to be more present in such a truly happy
moment where I was sharing something special with so many
strangers.
I wish more people were blessed with experiences like
this where they can realize that true happiness really does
not cost anything. It can be found in the simplest of things
if we would just give them a moment of our time. And it is
something that can entirely shape our day, even our life, if
we open our minds to it and let it in shine (or float) in.
stay classy! xx