Over this past summer, I was a legal intern for a law firm in Manhattan's Financial District. I commuted by train every day from my home, connecting at Hoboken for the Path train to the World Trade Center. I would use my traveling time, about an hour and a half, to read cases beforehand in order to help the attorney I was assisting prepare for pre-trials and client conferences. My goal was to help him better manage his schedule and his workload in an efficient way. When I got on the PATH train for my first time, I was immediately struck by how quickly you get boxed into a corner like a sardine. Especially uncomfortable due to the dreadful heat we experienced. By 9 a.m. the temperature would often reach 85 degrees outside. “How am I going to survive this everyday?” I thought. So I started to right down a little “how-to guide for myself”.

Here are a few tips to consider when interning in The Big Apple:

1. Invest in hand sanitizer

A lot of it. Keep it at your desk, in your bag, stash it wherever you can find it easily. Because everything you touch will already be handled by a million people before you. Carry a compact umbrella too.

2. Wear comfortable shoes

You will be walking very fast. There is this invisible ebb and flow that surrounds the city. It just grabs you. You will instinctively move a lot faster than you ever did.

3. Remember not to panic if, rather when, you get lost

Very often I would get an early call from the attorney telling me to meet him at a designated location outside the office which would be "an easy subway ride
away.” One day I was supposed to meet him at the Bronx Supreme Court but I took the wrong subway and ended all the way uptown. Fighting off a panic attack, I managed to download Apple Maps for iPhone, a very useful navigation guide. This is the only reliable app that provided me with step by step directions. Trust me, when you are lost in New York City, having an app tell you what do in the most basic elementary way as if it were actually holding your hand will help calm you down.

4. New York City has so much to offer and it can feel overwhelming so remember to take time to decompress.

Find time to have fun and explore. Time seems to move very fast. You will want to familiarize yourself with everything. Another useful too is the I Love NY- The Official Tourism App of New York. It updates daily with notifications about everything going on around the city. Luckily, Fridays tended to be low-key days and I would usually leave the office early if I could. I would visit the museums or just walk around the parks. A friendand I would often hop on the subway and spend the evening exploring.

If the city taught me one thing it was this: How to think quickly on my own two feet. You will develop a sense of independence you never felt before. Once you start navigating around the city you realize how welcoming it is. You meet people from every corner of the Earth and there is a sort of connection not found anywhere else. It is very liberating.

As I rode the elevator to the 25th floor each morning, I would often find other interns who were just as excited to be in the city as I was. We were all nervous, trying our best to not to show how nervous we were. I could just tell they were all wearing their game face trying to play it cool. We were all just trying to do the best we could. It took me a few days to get settled, but before long I was riding the subway and navigating my way around like everyone else. Granted, I was hoping no one would notice that I was often keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I ended up where I was supposed to be. You will find that people are friendly and often, like the conductor on my first train, become familiar faces. In no time at all, I was visiting all the places I had always wanted to see and meeting friends for lunch in Bowling Green and Central Park Fun fact: Bowling Green Park is the oldest park in New York City.

I have two years left here at HWS. I know I will miss everything and everyone in Geneva once I graduate. My eyes are set on returning to the Big Apple. I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity for the summer internship. It was an excellent prelude for life in the city and I am enormously grateful for everything I learned. I still have much to learn about New York City but I am officially on my way.

I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, “There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.” Robert De Niro