Let me guess, you’re sick of hearing me talk about New York? You along with everyone else I know, I bet.
Unfortunately for you and for everyone else, I will continue to unapologetically keep talking about New York City.
But maybe you like hearing (reading) me talk about New York City, and maybe that’s why you’re here. Maybe you too dream of someday living in the best city in the world. And if that is your dream, I’m here to tell you that it’s definitely possible and to never give up on it.
It’s no secret that my dream is to make it back there someday, and I definitely won’t be giving up on it anytime soon.
In the movies
Before I moved to New York, I only knew what the movies and TV shows showed me. I was obsessed with Gossip Girl, had watched every episode of Friends and Suits and some of my favourite movies of all time were set in NYC (New York Minute, Just My Luck, Home Alone 2 to name a few).
My only experience of America was my trip to Las Vegas when I was 21 with my parents. I remember when I was walking through Las Vegas Boulevard that I just had to live in America someday. I felt a calling, if you will.
And my first experience with New York was the day that I moved there. I seem to have a habit of moving to places without actually visiting them beforehand. I did the exact same when I moved to Liverpool for university and I did the same with New York.
Being in the taxi from Newark Airport and seeing the New York skyline for the first time out the window is a core memory that will remain with me for the rest of my life.
And yes, I can confirm that walking around New York is exactly like being in your own movie 24/7. There’s nowhere on this earth quite like it.
Moving to New York
Like I said, I didn’t really know what to expect when moving to New York other than what I had seen on the big screen. I didn’t know anyone personally that lived or had lived there, so I was going in pretty blind.
The good thing about moving there was that I was moving along with 100 other young people from the UK, Europe and further afield that would be living with me and wanting to experience the same things.
I took part in the Mountbatten Program and you can read all about that here, and I answer all your burning questions here.
It was a lot to take in at first as New York moves at such a fast pace and you soon learn to adjust to the constant sirens and noise of the city.
Living in the big apple
Living in New York was like a dream (for the most part). I moved there in August 2019 and was there in March 2020 when a certain pandemic hit the city.
The final six months of my year there were interesting to say the least. With the Black Lives Matter protests and covid happening, it was definitely memorable.
Being in New York and seeing Times Square empty, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge alone and being able to walk up and down the middle of the avenues of midtown was crazy but something I’ll never forget.
I also met my boyfriend in New York which was another memorable factor of my year spent there. Dating in New York is fun and being able to start a love story in the city so many romance movies and novels are set, was something I could never have even imagined for myself.
But outside of all that, doing the most mundane things in New York is 100 times better than doing them anywhere else. Walking down the street and grabbing a coffee, strolling through Central Park on a Sunday morning, grabbing a bagel for breakfast in a bodega, all give me an almost euphoric feeling and put me in a state of pure contentedness.
There’s an energy to New York City. There’s something that makes you feel so positive about doing the most boring of tasks. The place puts a smile on my face no matter the weather. New York makes you happy to be alive and makes you feel like anything and everything is possible.
Leaving New York
The toughest part of moving to and living in New York was knowing that there would come a time when I would have to leave.
Moving to New York and staying there seems to be the hardest thing in the world. Visas aren’t an easy thing to come by, and either you’re the world’s expert in a certain field, or your company are able to transfer you after a number of years spent there.
Neither things ring true for me and part of me is slowly coming to terms with the fact that a move back to New York doesn’t look to be in my immediate future.
But maybe this is my time to explore other parts of the world right now and when my travelling and exploring is done, then will come the time when I’m meant to move back to the city.
My time will come again, of that I’m sure. It just might not be in the next couple of years.
Ever since New York
You probably know that I’ve been back to New York a few times since I left in 2020 and each time it gets a little easier to visit for a few days and know that I’m not staying for the long term.
We’ve explored a lot of New York, so we always go with a set plan of what to do and see and more importantly where to eat, but we make sure to treat our trip like we’re locals again.
We walk around our favourite streets, grab a coffee and just stroll the whole of the city and take in the vibrant energy of New York.
It sounds so simple, but walking around the streets of New York with a coffee in hand is our favourite thing to do in the world.
Like I said, it’s hard to explain but New York really is the best place on earth.
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