"Extra! Extra! My first time published in print! 'Hit Me with Your Best Shots' for 20/20 magazine, hot off the presses!"
In February I “clocked in” as 20/20 magazine’s Guest Editor in Chief for the very first time. They invited me to one of their sun wear photo shoots and it was a blast! While there, James Spina (the actual EIC) told me if I would like to write a quick 200 word piece on my experience at the shoot, he’d publish it for their March issue and I jumped at the chance! You can read the piece entitled ‘Hit Me with Your Best Shots‘ here or in print! He told me to have it for him by Monday but I found myself so rev’d up I wrote it that night and had it in the next morning.
I find that writing comes easier when you are enthusiastically inspired and I was! The people at 20/20 rocked! Literally! From the moment I walked in, I knew I was going to have a great time. Everyone was really nice. The atmosphere oozed creativity and outreach, people flipped through magazines for trend spotting and tweet-pic’d as much of the shoot as possible so readers could see things through their eyes. They danced to their favorite tunes pumping out of the stereo and openly shared ideas and insights on what adjustments needed to be made to showcase the eyewear and models with their best fashion and faces forward.
I am grateful to get to see this side of the eyewear industry that I might have never experienced otherwise. I wanted to share with you my essay, at first I was hesitant but I spoke with everyone at 20/20 about it and they said I could and should and so I will. I really look forward to visiting the offices of 20/20 magazine at the end of March and spending the day in their shoes. I also can not wait for Vision Expo! Here it is:
Out with the New, In with the Old: Styles return us to Innocence
by Cheryl Murphy
Do you remember when people would ask each other ‘how was your day today?’ instead of scrolling through status updates? When tweeting was something only birds did? When ‘words with friends’ literally meant having a conversation with your friends, face to face, in person, instead of on Facebook? When diaries were kept instead of blogs? When you didn’t go to the computer to check the news and weather for the day, you went to the paper on your front door step?
Technology has brought us many cool gadgets and conveniences. It’s expanded our knowledge and made it all easier for us to stay connected to one another and to the world but yet, something seems missing. There is a certain warm nostalgia that seems lost, ‘the good old days,’ a simpler time when things went a little slower and everything seemed a little more pure.
Little reminders and glimpses of yesteryear can be spotted in the comeback of the Cat Eye, Horn-Rimmed, and geek-chic glasses. I love that these have rebounded back into pop culture. It helps me to recognize the times have changed, but the hearts of people haven’t. 
Accompany me on my journey as I “take over” 20/20 magazine at the end of this month, follow me on twitter and facebook and here as I may even do some live blogging?? Would you guys like that?
Thank you for all of your kind congrats and support! I plan to make the most of this amazing opportunity!
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