Reflecting On One Month In New York City.

I have been in New York for one month now. It was crazy to me to refill my Metrocard yesterday. Has it really been a month already? My life has absolutely changed [for the better] and will continue to change. I have my own apartment in Manhattan. I am going to graduate school. I start a part time job today. It is all overwhelming in the best way possible. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned since moving to New York City:

Everything is at your fingertips and far away: I assumed I would be able to get anywhere in a flash and transporting myself around the city would be easy. It is somewhat true that you have everything at your disposal. I have everything I need for my daily living within a block [groceries, drugstore, laundry, farmers market, coffee shops, restaurants, and more]. I can easily get to anything in my neighborhood and slightly beyond but after that I’m at the mercy of public transportation. When I visited a couple years ago, waiting at the subway didn’t bother me. Nowadays I’m always in a rush to get to class, work, or run errands. When you’re carrying four bags of groceries, a few extra blocks or a subway delay is a much bigger deal! 

New York really is the city that never sleeps: People are up at all hours of the days here. For someone who has night class, this is comforting. I feel safe coming home at night when so many people are strolling the streets. 

People are nice: Coming here I assumed people wouldn’t be overly friendly. It turns out I was completely wrong. New Yorkers are incredibly generous and helpful. Whenever I need directions or am looking for a restaurant, people always offer me tons of help. I’ve noticed that even when I don’t ask for help, people offers recommendations–I used Lyft Line to get to a bar last week and my car mate(?) started advising me on bars to check out! I’ve had multiple locals welcome me to the neighborhood. It’s refreshing!

Life is fast paced: I knew this would be the case coming here but it is still shocking. People are constantly going here! When I found this apartment, I made the decision within less than five minutes that I was going to take it. We had to race several other people to get the deposit down [at least 10 people were at the open house along with me]. It’s insane! But more on apartment hunting later…

It is crazy to me how much I’ve experienced and learned in the past month. Although I feel like I’m still adjusting, I also feel impressed with the amount I’ve dealt with in my time here. I wonder what I will have learned in six months…

What lessons did you learn in the past month?