My Start

This city makes me tired. It makes me lose the days. Long hours, short days, another week gone.  Weekend are full up errands and appointments. I try and remember a time before and I can't. New York has consumed me. I love it.


One of my few work friends Angela, who went to NYU, moving here by herself from San Diego gave me some great advice without knowing it. She said (paraphrasing);


 "New York is magical. So many people just stop here and live for a few years but I don't think I can ever leave. It's too magical."


It's true, everything else compared seems dull. We are taught by movies and TV shows that New York City is the heart of this county. That everyone's goal should end up in NYC to be considered successful.  I can see why. The city is alive, it  has a pulse the way it moves packed to the brim with people. So many individual stories.




Mine I almost didn't start. I was flown here for an interview, a job I didn't think I could get it, a job that seemed so far away from my life. A job in a different state and in a different city and everything out of my comfort zone.


My future job had a car service pick me up. The driver had a sign with my name on it. I walked up to him and he said "oh you're a women." I looked at him funny not sure if he was kidding. He opened the door for me, got in and started driving. The only other thing he said to me was this,


"I thought Avalon was a funny name for a man, but for this company, the only people I've picked up have been men. You're the first women."


We rode in silence after that. I wasn't sure if i was insulted or happy or excited. I felt like puking.




He dropped me off on the corner, pointed in a direction to walk to since it was Broadway and packed and he refused to pull up to the front. I felt instantly I couldn't do this. Broadway in Soho is a wall of people. Everywhere and anywhere, walking into, around you and running into you. Packed with stores, street venders and foot carts. The ground beneath you vibrates from the Subway underneath. 


Whatamidoingwhatamidoingwhatamidoing. Is all I thought. After 3 phone interviews and one Skye interview I was flown up here, to be interviewed by 4 different people and eat lunch with my future co-workers. It took 4 hours. In between interviews I had a great view of the city and I stared out the window trying to imagine myself living here. I couldn't. I had come all this way and I felt overwhelmed, by everything. 


I knew there was no way I could ever turn this job down. So i promised myself if I got it, I would go. And i did. So here I am. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Take a chance. On myself, on this job, on living so far from everything I know.


And I'm so glad I did.