In the City
Okay. Here's my thing with New York. Ever since I started telling people I was moving down here, it feels like everyone's been asking me if I'm just so excited, if it isn't the most amazing thing ever in my life. And ever since I actually moved down here, people have been asking me if I don't just love it, just like it says on the t-shirt, if I'm not amazed every day to finally be living in the center of it all, if it doesn't feel like the whole world is just stretched out before my feet like a giant rug. And I get it, I really do. Most people move here because they have a yearning to be at the center of the universe, where everything is happening. I didn't, though. And so, when people look at me like "you love it there, don't you," It's hard to explain what I really think:
New York is... okay.
Don't get me wrong. I don't hate it. As I told hesited once, my tshirt would say: "I [heart] NY, I'm just not in [heart] with NY." Here's why: I've never been the kind of person to complain that there's nothing to do. It's not my thing. Maybe it's because I grew up as an only child, or maybe it's my midwest suburb upbringing, but I've always found ways to occupy myself, no matter where I am. So, if everything closes at five p.m. sharp, I don't necessarily mind. I'm fine. I can read, I can make food, or watch internets, and hopefully I have friends to hang with.
Actually, when I think about ideal places to live, the number and quality of good friends that I have around me is far more important than the number and quality of entertainment activities. And for that, Oxford OH, or Syracuse NY still has Brooklyn beat, and probably will for a while. There are people here I'm meeting that I like, that I'm glad to know, and I'm sure there will be more, and when I finally reach that critical mass of good friends in the area (hopefully / possibly some of them even from Syracuse or Oxford) then I'll probably like NYC a lot better. But until then, I don't think of this place as better than the places I've lived recently, just noisier.
New York is... okay.
Don't get me wrong. I don't hate it. As I told hesited once, my tshirt would say: "I [heart] NY, I'm just not in [heart] with NY." Here's why: I've never been the kind of person to complain that there's nothing to do. It's not my thing. Maybe it's because I grew up as an only child, or maybe it's my midwest suburb upbringing, but I've always found ways to occupy myself, no matter where I am. So, if everything closes at five p.m. sharp, I don't necessarily mind. I'm fine. I can read, I can make food, or watch internets, and hopefully I have friends to hang with.
Actually, when I think about ideal places to live, the number and quality of good friends that I have around me is far more important than the number and quality of entertainment activities. And for that, Oxford OH, or Syracuse NY still has Brooklyn beat, and probably will for a while. There are people here I'm meeting that I like, that I'm glad to know, and I'm sure there will be more, and when I finally reach that critical mass of good friends in the area (hopefully / possibly some of them even from Syracuse or Oxford) then I'll probably like NYC a lot better. But until then, I don't think of this place as better than the places I've lived recently, just noisier.