Buffalo??? Buffalo!
By Casidhe Holland ♦ “The city is not for me. No, sir. And Buffalo? Ha, not a chance! I will never live there, or like it there, or go there of my own free will, never ever ever…”
That short excerpt from The Life of Casidhe Holland is perhaps a bit dramatic, but pretty accurate nonetheless. When I was younger, I hated the city. I grew up in a small, quiet town, removed from the hustle and bustle of city life. The corner store still had penny candy, the County Judge went to your church, and you were more likely to get stuck behind a tractor on a dusty back road than to park your car in rush hour traffic. Yee. Haw. While I didn’t want to live in my hometown forever, I much preferred it to any throbbing, buzzing crowd that the city had to offer. Being a cog in the big city wheel wasn’t exactly at the top of my Christmas list.
But here’s the kicker: I have a lot of family in Buffalo. Like a lot. So Santa still brought me the big city every Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, cousin’s birthday, grandparent’s anniversary, uncle’s wedding, Aunt Tina’s cat’s funeral, and so on and on and on… [Disclaimer: I don’t actually have an Aunt Tina, but you get the point]. That long drive into the city was something I became quite familiar with. Not to mention the city itself. I saw a lot of Buffalo and I must admit—I didn’t care for it one bit.
Actually, I hated it. Dreaded going there, even. It was easily my least favorite place to spend my time. Depressing right?
Then things changed. All of these years just sort of happened, and I turned around and was halfway through college and I’d changed and my mind was running eight million miles per minute trying to figure out who I was and I started to think that maybe the city could actually be a good fit for me because hey anything can happen and and and…
Hey. Eric Mower + Associates. That sounds interesting. But I would be in Buffalo. Of all the cities, it has to be Buffalo? C’MON MAN.
I applied anyway. Obviously.
In the end, I had to choose between an internship in New York City and an internship with EMA in Buffalo. I was torn because I knew that working with an experienced agency like EMA would be a great opportunity for me. But let’s get real. It’s New York City. You bet I was tempted to take it.
Spoiler alert: I took the EMA internship. I know, I totally ruined the surprise. Since I’m writing this blog and all, I’m guessing you had no idea. Anyway, I accepted it with a lot of excitement about EMA, but sort of an ambivalence toward Buffalo. I knew that EMA was going to be a great opportunity, so I would just have to make the best of being in the one location that I had only hated for my whole entire life. No sweat.
However, life surprises you sometimes. Get this: I am head over heels, hardcore, no turning back, Buffalovin’ this city. And it has 100,000,000%, everything, to do with EMA. The people that I work with live and breathe Buffalo. Being around so many people like that has given me a fresh take on this city. The professionals I work around are so passionate about the work that they are doing, simply because their environment really matters to them. That, in and of itself, has made EMA a really unique and exciting experience. People here love Buffalo, and they talk about all of the little places they go to that I had no idea even existed. They’re really proud of all that this area has to offer, and it didn’t take long for me to start listening.
With a new perspective and fresh attitude in tow, I set out. Brave explorer that I am, I began visiting places that people at EMA had suggested to me, as well as revisiting places that I had seen (and hated, admittedly) when I was younger. Under the influence of EMA’s passionate environment, I began the process of erasing and re-writing what I thought I knew about Buffalo.
I have learned so much here. At EMA, I have developed new skills, worked on interesting projects, and contributed to a growing, ever-changing body of professional work. I have experienced what it is like to be a part of an agency, and what it takes to work and succeed in the Marketing and Communications Industry. Even at a very personal level, I have been affected by EMA. This agency and its incredible people have helped me to rediscover an area that I wrote off years ago. I have realized that my childhood opinion of Buffalo had nothing to do with Buffalo, and everything to do with me. I was simply a small town kid. No city could be expected to compete with that. But as much as I still love my hometown, I’ve changed. I’ve grown up into a person who thrives on learning and on trying new things. I am always working to approach experiences and opportunities without reservations, and to put my truly best effort out there. And the city is so exciting, are you kidding? I can’t get enough! I was only holding back from Buffalo on the basis of a bunch of outdated information. It is really a tribute to EMA that I not only learned a lot about Marketing and Communications, but that I also got a wakeup call. I just needed a little push to see that my feelings about Buffalo no longer matched the person I have grown up to be.
I love photography, so I took a lot of pictures through this whole adventure. I smashed some of them together, squinted sideways, called it art, and put it up here with this blog post for your viewing pleasure. Love it, hate it, whatever you feel—it’s just a simple, nothing special, visual representation of what Buffalo has become for me: home.
Basically, I kind of love Buffalo. Just do your best to keep it on the down low. Stubborn, kid-version Casidhe may still exist in some parallel universe. And if she finds out what I’ve been up to, she’ll be royally ticked.