I, like 90 percent of humanities majors, constantly daydream about moving to New York City. Of course, I dream of the romanticized version of the city: a pest-free haven where my apartment has a full-sized fridge, closet space, and a bed that’s not in the same room as my dining table. While I know this may be unrealistic given that I probably won’t make six figures right after graduation, I still yearn for the NYC ‘It Girl’ life.
My friend and I took a somewhat spontaneous trip to the city over spring break. It had been a few years since I’d been there, and I wanted to see if it was still a place I’d seriously consider moving to. Spoiler alert: It absolutely is.
I’m from Minnesota — which, believe it or not, is very different from New York City. I used to consider Pittsburgh as part of the East Coast. I’m still in awe of accessible public transportation. Being able to walk everywhere is like a little treat for my oh-so-sick-of-highways brain. In other words, the city is a bit of a culture shock, and I have thoughts!
Disclaimer: This article is mainly about Manhattan (sorry, I’m a basic annoying tourist) and will likely make sweeping generalizations that don’t necessarily apply to the other boroughs. If you’re from New York, this will be annoying to read. You’ve been warned.
The subway system is easier to figure out than the Pittsburgh bus system. It is so nice to not have to pull a cord or press a button to signal your stop. You can just zone out and know that, at some point, the subway will stop at your stop. That’s really cool. Also, knowing what subway to take or which station to go to is relatively straightforward. Did my friend and I accidentally take a train to Brooklyn when we wanted to go to the Met? Yes. But we never made that mistake again! If you read the signs telling you where you should go, you’ll know where to go. Wild.
The Met is really big. No one told me. My friend and I got there three hours before it closed, and we got through maybe a quarter of it. Of course, my friend and I are people that need to look at absolutely everything, which might have had something to do with our slow pace. Still, I’m not sure how people walk through that museum without a map. How do you make sure you’re looking at everything? Do you just not care if you miss something? We had a map and we still got lost. Overall, though, the Met is amazing (obviously). However, as someone who needs to look at absolutely everything when I go to a museum, I loved the Guggenheim. It’s laid out in a way that makes it easy to navigate and virtually impossible to miss anything, and it’s much smaller than the Met, which makes for more of a chill outing.
I’m going to repeat something that’s been said a million times in a million ways: New York has great food and great coffee. I’m repeating this because it’s important to me. Every single place we went to had above-average food and coffee. What’s up with that? Even the random places we stopped at were good. Do people in New York know that that’s not normal? In Minnesota, there’s an unspoken, unofficial law that for every good restaurant, there has to be at least three restaurants that are just okay. So yes, New York food gets yet another stamp of approval from me.
In our time there, I’d like to think that my friend and I saw a good chunk of Manhattan. Despite this, I saw, like, maybe two grocery stores. Where do you buy groceries in New York? How does that work? Do you have to mentally and physically prepare yourself for the absolute trek it is to buy a bag of baby spinach? If there are more grocery stores, where are they hiding? Once again, as a Minnesotan, I’m confused. I’m used to grocery stores existing within a 5-minute radius of me at all times. This is something I’m really hung up on, in case you can’t tell.
Do people ever miss trees? Have people ever seen, like, a cow? Trees and cows were both essential parts of my upbringing, and I struggle to envision a life without their constant presence.
Are people who live in New York just born with the ability to determine which direction is north, south, east, or west all the time? Do you know how many times I wasn’t sure if the street I needed to be on was on my left or right? Do you know how many times I was humbled by those 50/50 odds? Too many to count. Knowing which direction to go, no matter how many signs there are everywhere, will always be challenging for me. It’s a gift, I think; you either have it or you don’t, and I certainly don’t.
Why are the cops on horses? I could probably Google this, but I won’t.
My friend and I noticed that a lot of people had large dogs; dogs that seemed too large to fit in a typical apartment. Where do these big dogs live? Are they happy there? The world may never know.
I get why New York is considered a good place for creatives. There’s something intrinsically inspiring about it. I’m not sure if it’s the architecture, the fact that you’re constantly surrounded by art and artists, the diverse population, or something else entirely. Whatever it is, I spent my nine-hour Greyhound trip back to Pittsburgh writing little things in my notes app. I feel like living there as a creative person would be like living in Minnesota as a person who loves Juicy Lucys and hotdish.
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