Cheers to you, New York City

I graduated from Miami University exactly one year ago from May 7, 2011. 12 days later, I packed up my life and moved to New York City. This was always the plan, it was a life long dream. I was that friend talking about some place called Magnolia Bakery and how their cupcakes would save your life. How Greenwich Village was like a storybook and I'd live there one day if I could (I've since come to realize I'd rather live in Gramercy and play in Greenwich.) I wasn't always sure what I would do here but I knew whatever it was, it had to be here.

It's one year ago to the  day that I moved to NYC. Sometimes I still feel new here, and in truth, i'm only just beginning to settle into my life here. I thought I'd never stop making the same mistake of going uptown instead of downtown or vice versa. After my first day in the city, I got lost on the train for two hours. Now I mostly know how all the subway lines connect and how to get from point A to point B. But more than knowing how to get around, I learned how to get by.

They say it takes a full year for someplace new to feel like home. I still call Ohio home since that's where I've lived most of my life but, NYC has certainly lived up to my expectations. I fretted so much about what to do today. I felt like I had to have the quintessential New York day to honor this anniversary but then a friend put it into perspective. Instead of doing New York-y things for the sake of doing them just because today is a significant day, I can instead realize that this is my life now. This city isn't a place i'm visiting anymore, it's where I live.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to make it clear that this year hasn't been easy. This year in the city hasn't been easy. For every glamorous night out, there is a tedious morning commute. For every exciting new friend you make, there is a deeply missed one somewhere far away. The amazing meals in fancy restaurants you know you couldn't experience anywhere else cost three times as much as anywhere else. This Thought Catalog piece is so honest in exposing the ugly side of New York. Like the end of the article suggests, most people who move here eventually move away. This city has a way of draining your energy, you can only keep up with it for so long. So if one day I do move away, I'll be oh so glad for my time in the greatest city on earth.

New York, you've been quite an adventure. I have no idea what else you've got up your sleeve but you've got me hooked and i'm willing to stick around to find out, at least for a while. 

A few New York moments

I saw a fight on the train coming home tonight. I'm not sure I have ever seen a real fight before. Once, in college, a "gang" (can it really be a gang when it's in Ohio? Is that not just a group of male friends who maybe probably just have a secret handshake and are now calling themselves a "gang?") fought outside one of my tiny Ohio school's nightclubs. Sidenote: a friend of mine stood atop a pile of snow and shouted "Peace, everyone! Peace!" A variation of that did happen tonight though when an older gentleman shouted, "You're crazy lady! Calm down!" But perhaps that's not the same message my friend was trying (drunkenly...) to send. I digress.

The train pulled into 42nd St. Times Square when this happened so of course, authorities stepped in to stop the fight because the really tall man standing between the crazy-lady-trying-to-fight and the-stupid lady-fueling-the-fire wasn't enough to calm either parties down. It doesn't even matter what the fight was about or who was right or how it ended. What was significant was how it brought a train full of strangers "together" in this bizarre, circumstantial, but significant way. Suddenly people couldn't get home to their kids and no one wants to end a night (a Monday night mind you) with screaming and shouting and violence (and hair pulling. how stereotypical).

So when the passengers were asked to exit the train and suddenly the whole car was abuzz with the excitement of what just happened, I was happy to see that people were laughing. That sounds wrong, as if they were laughing at those women (maybe they were?) but what I mean is that they were laughing instead of being angry or complaining or what have you. Because of one woman having a bad day and another not being able to be the bigger person, an entire train full of tired (it was 11pm. who has the energy to fight at 11pm on a Monday night?!) people were home that much later and for such a ridiculous reason. Strangers were recounting and asking questions and speculating and laughing. Myself included. The stranger I was talking to told me to "get home safe, okay?"

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, an act of violence brought strangers together. And there is some sort of beautiful, twisted irony there.

I hope it's clear that I in no way condone violence or people laughing at violence. I hope it's clear what I took away from this night and perhaps it is clear but I'm just that type of person who has to make sure before concluding a post like this.

In happier news, it snowed tonight! It was the first snowfall of Winter and i'm both thrilled for the impending beautiful blanket of snow to cover my beloved city and dreading the walks through it. Regardless, Winter is finally here New Yorkers! I bet Central Park is stunning in white.

Ps- A final unrelated note. A man turned into me very suddenly on the side of the street tonight. He looked really, really happy (like...eyes light up happy) with a sweet grin on his face and it was washed away instantly and replaced with embarrassment when he realized I was not his girlfriend, that he meant to turn to. This very brief exchange was...I don't have a word for it. I just have the thought that i'm very glad that this man I don't know is that in love and that happy to see someone in the world. It was reassuring.