LIVE from studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza

Ever since I can remember, my dad would wake up and turn on the Today Show. Every morning. Getting ready for the first day of school? Today Show blasting from our living room as I eat my cereal. On family vacation? Today Show from the hotel TV. It doesn’t matter what day it is, if the Today Show is airing, my dad is watching. So having my cohort visit the Today Show on Friday morning and later getting to tour the studio, I felt as if I had to absorb every second of it for my dad. It was honestly probably my favorite experience from the whole trip. Even though I was on the opposite side of the country as him, in that moment I felt so close with my dad. I don’t have the opportunity to visit home a lot, but standing in Rockefeller Plaza transported me back to those mornings of my mom prepping lunches for my brothers and me, and the smell of my dad’s coffee, and the sound of our old rickety heater kicking in at exactly 7am. I was somewhere I had never been before, but I felt so at home. I took a step back and thought about everything I had accomplished to get here. One moment I’m finishing my multiplication tables at our kitchen table with the Today Show on in the background, and suddenly I’m in NYC on the Today Show set during an advertising trip about to graduate college and enter the real world. Life moves fast, tomorrow’s a new day, but I’ll always cherish Today. 

I brought my dad back a severely overpriced Today Show mug. It’s the least I could do for him helping me out with a severely overpriced education. 

-Regan Nelson 5.19.19