My Three Month NYC Update

Take a shot every time I say "I moved to New York City" in a blog post since I've moved and I think you honestly might have severe alcohol poisoning beyond the point of even being able to ingest more. Screw it though, I'm excited to be here and who doesn't love talking about the city?

We're about a day shy of my actual three-month anniversary of living here but WHO CARES ABOUT SPECIFICS!!!!! Three isn't really a significant number, but three months has somehow felt like three years except I still haven't seen or really done anything out of the ordinary for me. I don't know if this speaks to the fact that my free time and available budget for fun activities are both small and nonexistent or the fact that it feels like I've somehow lived here forever and I don't feel this strong urge to experience everything. I'm not going anywhere, so rushing to try a million new places hasn't occurred to me, no matter how annoying it is that I never have suggestions or places to take people when they visit because I frequent very specific places repeatedly until I somehow stumble upon (aka someone recommends it to me) someplace new.

It's been three months since I moved into that random Crown Heights apartment for two weeks, only to thrust myself back in Chelsea for another two and a half weeks while I, quite frankly, got my shit together. I was super unprepared in many ways for my move, namely in the apartment department (I'm a rapper now, didn't you know?), but I was just so damn excited to move that the logistics of the situation didn't matter to me. I had complete and utter blind faith in myself that something would give and I'd be able to make something happen. I had my two suitcases, one for my clothes and another for my shoes, makeup, towels, literally anything that I could possibly need while I was apartment hopping, desperately looking for a place to call my own.

Brooklyn has been surprisingly kind to me. It's funny, because I knew I was going to end up in Brooklyn for obvious financial reasons (more bang for your buck, I can actually walk in my apartment without walking into something because it's so cramped), but I wasn't really...excited about it. I'm sorry Brooklyn, you lovely place, you! I live in Williamsburg (is it Williamsburg? East Williamsburg? Am I in Greenpoint? NEW YORK, WHAT ARE YOUR NEIGHBORHOODS?!) and let me tell you, fuck the L train shutting down next year because I want to stay here forever.

I love my neighborhood. I love that I see a dog that looks like Cheddar from Brooklyn 99 in the mornings sometimes. I love that I can still hear cars and sirens without the sound waking me up every hour on the hour because people in New York just love their horns. Also, most importantly, I love my first walk-in closet and never want to leave it ever. If you felt sorry for me before, you definitely will not now.

Sometimes people ask me how I'm adjusting and I just don't have an answer to that question. It hasn't felt like I've needed any adjusting. Maybe it's because I've been coming independently so often for the past few years that the day to day of New York doesn't feel unnatural to me. Or maybe it's because I've had to adjust to every other city I've lived in because they're not New York (what do you mean there's no public transporation system that will conveniently take me around Cleveland and not take sixteen hours? Are you telling me there's a train that isn't open 24 hours that runs up and down one street in Buffalo? What is this nonsense?). I've wanted to live here since I was a kid, as most kids aspire to (or some, at least), but it didn't stop when I was a kid, nor a teenager, nor a very, very early twenty-something with no savings. But now I'm 22 and I'm here and I'm broke but I LOVE IT.

I figured it'd be fun to talk about the typical NYC things to do that I haven't done yet but finally accomplished. I skipped a lot of the landmarks and tourist things during my visits because I always stay with people who have lived here for years and that's the last thing that they want to do. It gave me a more well-rounded New York experience so I do appreciate it, but damn, I missed out on a few things.

I finally, finally went to The Met. It was mostly to see the Heavenly Bodies exhibit, but my friend and I spent a little too long in the ancient Egypt section because we found all of the mummies trippy (there are still bodies in there?!). I also went to Battery Park for the first time, including a trip on the Seaglass Carousel that my roommate ~~forced~~ asked me to ride with her. And I also straight up tanned in the park with a bathing suit, which is not something that I ever thought I would do in public. It's a normal thing, this isn't anything like spectacular or anything, but I love the city's version of a "beach." You gotta make do with what you have here in the concrete jungle!

Oh, and I also rode the subway without holding onto anything once for a whole like five stops and didn't die or stumble. BOOYAH!