So, How’s the City?
This question comes at me a lot. I get it! Lots of friends and family start conversations with me this way because it’s a very valid opening line! This move has been a big change, so it’s only fair to ask how life as a city slicker has been treating me.
So, how is the city? The answer, sponsored by COVID-19: it’s complicated.
Don’t get me wrong: I love being here. But a lot of the things people move to the city for are not available to me right now. I can’t go out dancing or sing karaoke or attend a comedy club or a Broadway show. But there still remains much more to do here than in suburbia. I can visit a museum, masked, as long as I make a reservation. I can dine with friends wherever there is decent outdoor heating (not too keen yet on indoor dining). I can take the train up to Central Park and run. I can walk anywhere. This last one is a biggie and something I usually call out when asked the title question.
Coming from a town without sidewalks to NYC, the freedom to walk places is one of the greatest perks of the move. Instead of a true workout on any given day, I can still get in my ten thousand steps and see new neighborhoods in the process. I can walk to get a coffee or a new toothbrush. These things might seem trivial, but they are both errands that in Westchester would require a car. The ability to walk is something I took great advantage of when studying abroad in London, walking to class every single day even though the tube would have saved me twenty minutes. There is something empowering and freeing about knowing that I can step out my door and, with just my legs, get nearly anywhere.
But in truth, we don’t all leave home to please our Fitbits. We leave home for the independence that allows for buying our own groceries and deciding how to decorate our [tiny] living rooms and picking new hairdressers. I am, luckily, not one of those people who had to leave home to escape a toxic or uneasy environment. I loved living in my home and still do. In fact, I was there last weekend for a birthday and will be returning this weekend for a race. But loving one thing, of course, does not prevent you from trying to love another.
There’s a societal expectation that when we reach a certain age, we should no longer be living with our parents. And generally I agree with that. But this is a special time and, quite frankly, I’ve had many people ask why I am not still living with my parents, considering the difference in rent and the lack of an in-office job. I will never be ready to truly leave home, but I was ready to create a satellite home for myself, somewhere I need only depend on me.
But enough of that. How’s the city? There are plenty of people, albeit masked, walking the streets just as you would see in the NYC of old (as in, one year ago). I have not been to Times Square, but I am sure the Elmos and Batmans (Batmen?) are still representing. Central Park is always lively with runners and bikers and people who insist on walking in the running lane five across. The Indian food and Thai food and pizza are still delicious. Buildings are still standing, some emptier than usual and some unused to the endless company. The subway still stalls almost every ride, and I still find myself directionally disoriented when emerging from underground (though this is an Olivia consistency, not a NYC one).
How’s my piece of the city? Roomie is great. Apartment is great. I’m not starving or sick or unemployed (knock on lots of wood). I still have not tried Joe’s pizza but I have gotten into Kombucha, so there’s that. I am using sulfate-free shampoo now. My plant is still alive. I watched Schitt’s Creek like the rest of the world. I might be a regular at the pizza place across the street? I walked in the other night and the man behind the counter handed me my order among the few without asking my name? Question marks here because I have not been too many times. Maybe I have a distinct order (cheese pizza with spinach and roasted red peppers).
The bottom line is that some things are different for me now, but a lot of things are the same. So when you ask me, “So, how is the city?” and expect the tale of a life renewed, you may be disappointed. Moving here has been a great step in my life, but it’s only one of many to come, and in life, through-lines are stronger than the forces of change.