The best thing about living in Vermont was going on car rides. To Burlington, to Stowe, to the supermarket one town over. It didn't really matter. The scenery was breathtaking all year round and there was always something really beautiful to look at, even if the car was only in motion for five minutes. It was best in the summer though, at the end of the long, hot days, when the sun was setting like fire on the horizon and the corn fields were all drenched in that half hour of perfect golden light. There was nothing quite like letting my hair down and sticking my face out the window - like a dog catching the breeze - and just watching the farmland roll by.
Needless to say, there's none of that here. That same, gorgeous light exists, but it's more like a filmy haze, and it doesn't do much for steel, cement, and graffitied garage siding. Not to mention, being driven through the city can be stressful with the bright lights, cryptic and conflicting road signs, and the ceaselessly blaring car horns. I shudder to think of what it must be like to drive here. Jen (my sister) is a terrifying force to be reckoned with. She's driven me to my apartment from hers several times in these conditions, but she smiles effortlessly and chats through it, like we're sitting down for tea or strolling through the park. I don't know where she puts the rage. She says that city driving doesn't stress her out because driving doesn't stress her out. It's traffic that gets under her skin.
When I graduated from college in May, I was anticipating a change of pace. And boy, did I get one. Less than two weeks after walking across the stage, I was in The Big Apple, crashing on Jen and Santino (her boyfriend)'s couch in Long Island City. About a week after that - by way of a Craigslist miracle - I moved into a great apartment in a really safe neighborhood with two roommates who I've been getting along with swimmingly. Currently, I'm living off of my nest egg and the job hunt is proving to be challenging. I had the dignifying experience last week of dedicating an afternoon to creating a resume for retail and restaurant experience because competition for jobs is so high in NYC that most employers don't accept plain old applications anymore. My efforts have also been somewhat slowed up by the fact that I've been sick as a dog all week.
So if Vermont is so beautiful and New York City, well, isn't, then why did I move here? Well, for one, I wanted to be somewhere different, somewhere with fewer cows and more people. I certainly got that. Secondly, I have an internship to complete in Manhattan between mid-June and late August before I can officially cross off my last five credits and consider myself a college graduate. I only know a few people here, and that internship will hopefully go a long way in helping me to network. I may be looking for restaurant and retail jobs now, but someday I want to have a career. Also, I've been coming to NYC since I was 12 years old. I have a soft spot for it. Not to mention, I know the subway system well enough to get around without too much trouble, and it's supposedly one of the most complex public transportation systems there is.
Do I want to live here forever? I don't know. I doubt it.
But Jen says if I can hack it here, I can hack it anywhere.
So that's what this blog is about.
Life here and what it's like to live it.
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