We’ve all seen them: “Enter to win a trip to (fill in the blank)!” or “Enter here to win a basket of lovely prizes!” But who really wins those things? Not that I haven’t tried to win one of those fabulous prizes myself – ever since I turned 18, I’ve entered those silly contests online sponsored by my favorite magazines or Web sites. Hell, all I have to do is give them my name and current address and I’ve got a chance of winning. Someone has to win – why not me? But all I’d ever won was a sample size of Neutrogena face wash and a tiny bag of Jelly Bellys. Well, that was until January.
“JANE MAGAZINE CONTEST WINNER!!!!!” screamed the subject of one of my e-mails.
Anxiously, I opened it, concerned it would read: “Just kidding! But do you haveproblems with your penis? Here’s a pill to help!”
Instead, it said: “Amy, it’s your lucky day! Remember the contest you entered on www.janemag.com? Well, you’ve won a trip to New York City and a professional photo shoot with a rock-and-roll photographer!”
No, I thought. I remember no such contest. I was a little excited, but all I could smell was bullshit. So I wrote back.
“What kind of sick joke is this? Why would you be so cruel?”
But then I got the reply. “No, Amy, this is serious.”
And that’s how I became one of those people who really wins those things.
I couldn’t believe that it was happening to me. I told only a select few people – after all, what if it turned out to be a trick? What if I went to the Portland airport and people were waiting with signs saying, “You got Punk’d, even though you’re not a celebrity! You’re such a fool!” Even after I signed contracts, even after my picture appeared on the “Winners!” page of janemag.com, even after I got on the plane and was well on my way to the biggest city in the United States of America, I couldn’t believe it. Come on, would you?
I got to spend four fabulous days of my spring break in the most cultured city in America, all for free. I even got to bring my boyfriend Chris with me. We were put up in the posh SoHo Grand Hotel, smack dab in the middle of the shopping mecca of the city. And I got my picture taken by the amazing Stefano Giovannini, who has shot the likes of Cat Power and Sonic Youth.
It was incredible: My picture was taken all over the Lower East Side in little hole-in-the-wall restaurants and coffee shops, as people looked on wondering who I was. My makeup artist, Diego Americo, would stop the shoot to fix my hair or dab a little extra lip gloss on my already shiny lips. I’d never felt so special in my life. And I even got to see a celebrity. While I was sitting in the corner of a quaint little coffee shop getting my picture taken, in walked musician Ryan Adams. Although I didn’t talk to him, or even make eye contact with him, it was fun just being three feet away from him while he waited patiently for his coffee and muffin.
And of course, I did a lot of the tourist things: I visited Ground Zero (though it was just a bunch of ugly construction), Times Square, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and, of course, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where my art history major boyfriend gave me lessons in all kinds of incredible art work. But most importantly, I fell in love with the amazing city that truly never sleeps. If you haven’t yet visited the incredible New York City, put it on your to-do list.
So now, go enter those contests! (You should start at janemag.com!) I’m living proof that people really do win those things. And maybe you can be one, too. Good luck!

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