You can finally get rid of your car. I know; I know; MTA can be unreasonably slow. It always runs local at night; and the constant track work causes excessive rerouting and slow service…but you know what? I don’t mind. At eighty-one bucks a month for my MetroCard, I can go wherever I want whenever I want&8212while my relatives back home are moaning about gas prices. The subways might be slow, but doesn’t it beat paying for a car and insurance every month? And the late-night trains making local stops are a perfect setting for me to draw out sewing ideas, write in my journal, knit, or read.
You’ll be in the single best place in the world for working in television and film, publishing, finance, fashion, advertising, and the arts. And even if you start low in the industry, as an admin or an assistant, there’s plenty of room for advancement for those industrious and ingenious enough to do it right. Once you get high enough on the hierarchy, you’ll eventually make enough money to counteract your astronomical rent prices&8212or, hopefully by then, you will have moved into a rent-stabilized building.
Even if you’re broke, you can always find cheap or free things to do. There are entire websites devoted to the art of drinking for free, and you can find similarly free or cheap food and entertainment&8212my favorites are the ten-for-a-dollar dim sum or super-cheap produce from the street carts in Chinatown, cheese and bread at gallery openings (the Art Students League of New York has fed me more dinners than I’m prepared to admit), the entire collection at the Metropolitan (”suggested donation” doesn’t mean you actually have to pay what it says&8212I’ve never paid more than a buck for admission), and Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park (with a stack of books, a snack, and a blanket in tow).
Since so many people here have come from far away, there are a ton of people who can relate to your situation, and a handful can be counted on to help you out. A friend of a college friend hooked me up with a job recently; a high school classmate bought me drinks when I was lonely and broke; an acquaintance from my current job helped me get a couple of web design commissions. And it’s fun to pass along the good karma&8212when my friend from college moved up earlier this month and was looking for a roomie, we signed a lease together in Brooklyn.
It gives you a true appreciation for other places. I frequently say that I couldn’t live anywhere after New York without being a little bit disappointed. But I have a new appreciation for Cincinnati and Louisville, the two cities I call home&8212for the way I could walk into a bar and know seventy-five percent of the people there, the way the clerks at the record store knew my tastes and were always eager to suggest something new for me to hear, the knowledge that I could always get a decently-priced bourbon of decent quality at the nearest liquor store without having to visit a specialty shop, and the way my apartment was within stumbling distance of all my favorite watering holes. I’m looking forward to visiting both places before the summer is up…but I know that upon arriving, I’ll be ready to come back to my true home now.
It’ll be the most difficult test you can give yourself&8212and to pass, all you have to do is stick it out. A month after arriving, you’ll probably be poorer than you ever thought was possible; but a year after that, you’re ahead of the learning curve, and the worst is over. And you can laugh at yourself, and maybe then you’ll actually call yourself a New Yorker.
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1 comment
gilda says:
Jun 24, 2008
the best thing i love is the energy from the streets. it’s inspiring.
the thing i hate most and a good reason why i want to move out of the city, is the smell. new york smells of pee. ugh.