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Nothing will go as planned, but this isn’t always a bad thing. Embrace the mistakes, the random, and the chance. It often results in amazing things.

Get it in writing. Don’t agree to anything verbally.

Work hard. You won’t survive if you don’t. Pull an all-nighter. Go to a networking event and allow yourself to be a little bit self-congratulatory. Send thank-you notes to your colleagues and interviewers. Knock on doors, because no one really does that anymore. Instead of talking about your novel, finish it.

Play hard. You’ll go insane if you don’t. Run screaming through the rain. Go to outdoor concerts. Dance your ass off. Make art. Write. Throw a party that will annoy your neighbors, then invite them over. Be fearless.

Don’t be afraid of people saying “no”. You’ll never get what you don’t ask for. This can be anything from a seat on the subway to a promotion at your job to a discount on your rent.

Money matters. Everything costs more than you think it will. Don’t count on spending money to have a good time, but if you go to free events, go early, because half of the five boroughs will have had the same idea as you. Your credit score matters too, but not as much as your money.

Apartments are tiny. Most domestic must-haves are unnecessary. This can include anything from your high school yearbooks [scan 'em!], your LP collection [convert to mp3 to save some space], your car [duh], and ninety percent of your clothing.

Fashion is important, but styles change so quickly and New Yorkers are on the ball about it, so it’s easy to look out of date. Spend money on well-made clothes that fit, not fleeting trends.

Also, take care of your feet. You might routinely walk six to eight miles in a day, and this is not easy to do with bursitis, sprained ankles, or blisters.Flats are your friend. So are foot massages.

Pay extra to live alone or with only your partner. There is enough craziness in New York to make you want to off yourself, but it’s worth a little bit more expense to make sure your apartment is a sanctuary of sanity. If you need to sublet with a stranger, make sure it’s short-term – one of my friends ended up in a crazy sublet situation where she wasn’t allowed out of her room when her roommate, whose name was on the lease, was at home. [She also had a pantry full of sketchy-looking substances, so who knows what she was up to. Bootlegging, maybe?]

When you’re choosing a place to live, you’re choosing a neighborhood as well as a home. Walk around, make sure you feel safe, find a decent grocery store, make friends with the owner of the terrifying wild dog on the corner so that he won’t attack you.

People will judge you by the neighborhood you live in. An old friend didn’t want to move in with me because he didn’t want to give up Park Slope for Bushwick. [He also spent a higher percentage of his post-tax income on rent than anyone I've ever met in any city in the world - not the easiest decision to understand, but he placed a really high value on living in a neighborhood that was attractive and safe, and adjusted his other spending accordingly. So kudos to him for that.]

Your train route can make your life easier, or it can ruin your life. I’m going to do my damndest not to live off the G or the F trains again.

Be kind to everyone, but be wary – people aren’t always trustworthy. Do I even need to remind you of the Hipster Grifter?

Alcohol is a powerful social lubricant that almost everyone here abuses at one point or another. Stop yourself before you do. I’m a huge proponent of good bourbon. But don’t let it be the only thing that takes away your social anxiety with new people or helps you feel like you fit in.

A lot of people do a lot of drugs. If you’re not into the drug scene, don’t feel bad or immature, but don’t be a condescending douche about it. It sucks, but it’s completely possible for someone to be an addict and still function as an adult human being.

There are a lot of miserable people up there. Avoid them. The most miserable are the ones who wear their New York residency like a badge of honor and feel that they have to live up to the stereotypes of rudeness and selfishness that pervade our ideas of New York. They are almost always compensating for being from out of town.

Which, by the way, isn’t something you should be ashamed of. The city was built on people from out of town. And that’s what makes it awesome. [I met more Cincinnatians in New York than I did in Cincinnati.]

Despite all the potential for obnoxiousness, you will find cool people there. If you blog, you will make friends. If you go to meetups or BarCamp or Jelly, you will make friends [and possibly also get work]. If you have Facebook friends or even friends of friends in the city, you will have drinks with them. Keep in touch with people.

Have a business card, even if it just has your cell phone number. In a smaller city this isn’t as necessary, because if there’s a total of four bars in the whole city, you’ll inevitably run into acquaintances at one of them. New York isn’t as kind; so be ready for it.

Some people are exceptionally kind. These are the people that make living in New York worth doing. I’m talking about the pet taxi driver that introduced me to his daughter and sent me a text message on the holidays. The friend of a friend that met me for a CSS concert and became my bestie. The elderly work colleague who hired me to come over and teach him how to use his MacBook [and later tried to set me up with his son]. The manager who, upon seeing me throw up at work because I couldn’t afford to go to the doctor, took me home to her mother, who was a nurse, and got me the medical care I needed. It was amazing.

Related posts:

  1. 6 Things You Might Actually Love About New York City
  2. 8 Things you’ll Absolutely Hate About NYC
  3. 7 Things To Do Before You Move to New York City
  4. Things You Might Forget You Loved About New York City
  5. Inspiration: 1.27.2009