Rick Destito: my version

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I saw that "Rebirth of A City" was published in The New York Times today.

A part of me is extremely happy that this story was written in such an esteemed publication. But the driven journalist part of me is somewhat sad. Mainly because, as many other journalists know, it's kind of important to be the first to break a story. And get credit for it. Now, I'm not a super-competitive person. Really. But still, I felt it was my story :X Is that childish?

I'm not even kidding, the next story I was going to post that was part of my Connective Corridor beat series was a profile I wrote in NEW 305 about Rick Destito. It was my favorite piece of all the ones I produced for the class for many reasons. One, I felt I discovered him. Well, one of my [Connective Corridor] contacts told me about him. But what he was doing (and currently still is, apparently) was unheard of to many people in Syracuse with the exception of his close friends and the arts community. As I was unraveling and absorbing all the information about his projects, I really felt like I stumbled upon something really unique and worth sharing. Two, I worked extremely hard on it, having interviewed at least 10 sources, some several times. Three, it was the first time that I felt like a real journalist. Considering it was a story for a class, I traveled a lot. I wasn't confined to the borders of my campus or phone interviews from my room, but I stepped out, past Armory Square, into the Near Westside, into the walls of The Gear Factory (which still, when I think about it, "blows my mind,") and into, what is now, his home (I love The New York Times' interactive before&after feature--I never saw the final product).

Here is my version of the story:

Rick Destito by Noelia de La Cruz