New York City is a hard place to live.
Everyone here is on a mission; without a strong sense of purpose, this city will swallow you whole. Rents are exorbitant — $2500/month is the going rate for a hideous studio apartment right now (mine is 1600, a steal and split with Cory and I, so like 800) — & a one-way subway ride costs $2.50. It adds up quickly. This is hard to deal with. Some people feel exhausted by this, think, ‘Why bother?’ & decide to live somewhere else. But some people choose to let it motivate them, push them hard, & turn them into the person they never even dared to dream they could be.
Even though this is not my MOST favorite place in the entire world, i do love it, and i know it’s not perfect. Nothing is. NYC is not all rooftop picnics & flowers from the bodega. There were plenty of times when I thought I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent, or when I walked around the city with a sad, confused homesick heart. But through all of that, I never doubted one thing: New York City itself. The idea of leaving never crossed my mind. I had chosen New York, & it had chosen me — for better or worse.
There is a lot of talk about “living your dream”, & some people think it’s balderdash. I believe in living your dreams, of course! But when we think about “living our dreams”, we make the mistake of thinking that everything will be easy, or that there is no effort required in making your dreams come true. That’s not always the case, & it sets us up to fail.
This can be very discouraging. Sometimes when we realize that what we really want isn’t going to be easy, we want to give up. When things don’t turn out the way we want them to, we lose hope. We think that if it didn’t work the first time, it never will. One of the most wonderful things about life is that there a million different ways of reaching your goal. There’s truth in the old (& somewhat disgusting) saying, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
It’s very common to suffer from a kind of problem-solving myopia where we fixate on one outcome. When we do this, we essentially blind ourselves to all the other potential solutions, which narrows the likeliness of success.
You might not get to NYC on your first, second or even third try. But if you’re hungry for it, if you fall asleep dreaming of thundering subway trains & long, hot summers, & if you’re willing to scrape together every ounce of gumption & ambition you possess, you’ll get here. We’ll be ready & waiting for you.
On a lighter note, here are photos form my weekend:
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