New York, I’m Not Coming For You. NYC Isn’t The ‘Best Place On Earth’
Disclosure: I’m from Westchester, so 45 minutes outside Manhattan. Yes, I acknowledge I’m not from Manhattan, but have frequented it A LOT in my 21 – going on 22 – years of living. Pretty much every person I know cannot wait to graduate college and move there, but I honestly don’t see the incentive.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of where I came from. I enjoyed where I grew up for the most part and it was nice to have NYC pretty close by. New York is great for visiting but I would never want to live there, or at least not at this point in my life. Wait…did you guys just hear that? I think I heard the heart of 100,000 girls just stop beating.
“How can you not want to live in NYC!?” “NYC IS THE BEST!!” “I’LL ONLY LIVE IN NYC, NO WHERE ELSE.” That’s awesome if you’re dead set on NY, but there’s just a part of me, okay mostly all of me, that would break down in sobs if I had to settle there permanently. If I could land my dream writing job, I’d stay.
NYC has a ton to offer: clubbing, restaurants, theater, arts, sciences etc. You name it, New York has it. What NYC is lacking is one very important component of our lives: affordability. Now, my parents don’t plan on paying my rent for the next five years of my life, unlike so many of my fellow classmates whose parents will continue supporting them.
So, I would be burdened with paying $1300-$1500 a month (This is an estimate, not a fact. Please don’t come attacking me about statistics, I’m not interested) to live with two or three other people.
Ummmmmm. No, thank you. I decline.
Your room is likely the size of a large box, and your kitchen is the size of two. Your bathroom is cramped, and you can barely get enough time in there between you and your two other roommates. Not to mention, food is exponentially more expensive there. Before you jump down my throat and think about killing me in my sleep, hear me out.
I look at NYC like this: hyped up. Celebrities are singing about it, movies are filmed there and fashion shows take place there. It’s glamorized, but hey, so is teen pregnancy, so just let that sink in for sec.
There are thousands of other places we can live in that are just as great and way more affordable. Why should we break our newly formed banks accounts for this place when we have a million other options that are equally great?
Yet, people are so obsessed with NY and why? Plain and simple because it’s “cool” to live in NY. I bet you most people, not at all, are only interested in living there so they can say they live there. This is not a valid reason to relocate, everyone. Job opportunities, dreams and family are reasons to relocate.
People’s jaws drop when I tell them I’m considering Dallas, Atlanta, Miami and so on. They just, “literally can’t even imagine!” Okay, well I can.
Don’t get me wrong, if I had money to blow, I would be all about NYC, but not as a newly graduated person who’s making an entry level starting salary. When I’m rich, I could live there. There’s no bang for your buck at this point in time. Please don’t try and convince me that your 45k salary really has you thriving in that environment. You’re a liar.
I don’t need to live there just so I can change my “Current City” on Facebook to Manhattan. That’s for pretentious people and those trying to overcompensate for self-esteem.
If your industry thrives in NYC then hell yeah, get your butt over there because sometimes you have no other choice, and you have to be there to do what you love. But, if you’re moving there because you think it’s cool or because everyone else is doing it, you might want to ask yourself if you successfully graduated middle school.