On my move to: New York, New York

When I look back on how I got to New York... I am just baffled.

I was applying to jobs like crazy (aka crazy stressed every day). I was very fortunate to have three amazing friends in NY who opened their homes and apartments to me several times as I traveled in and out of the city for interviews. Now, I wasn't set on NY. I was applying for jobs in several different cities, but NY by far had the most job openings. It was a great way to be able to slowly get to know the city.

When Tori would get done work, she would be my tour guide in midtown. 

I would explore the Upper West Side with Glenn and Brooklyn with Mallory.

I know there are not a lot of people that have the opportunity to slowly explore their options like I did. I was in a situation where when I didn't like a job, I could just say "no" to the job offer.

That is what made it possible for me to end up with a job that I look forward to every morning. Little did I know that finding a job was only half the battle. I was so focused on finding a job that I had completely pushed aside the other main factor that needs to be considered when moving to a new city: Where am I going to live?

Upon getting the job, I took to several different housing and roommate sites, learning firsthand how creepy they all can be. You'll never guess which one ended up working the best: Craigslist. I shied away from it at first, but the more people I talked to, the more they said that was the most successful way to find a place to live.

So for the first two weeks of my job I would spend an hour or two after work each day on these sites messaging people regarding their apartments. It was a very taxing experience. It was hard to focus on the excitement of a new job with the reality of being a vagabond setting in.

I began averaging at least two apartment showings a day. You would think that would mean that I could just snatch one of those up. If only it were that simple. The reasons for them not working out were all different. One would end up being too far away. The other would be looking for a thirty-year-old male. Then I'd be considering one, give my brother a call, and immediately be informed that I have to raise my budget because I would get killed in the neighborhood I was considering. Thank God for having a brother and sister-in-law that lived here for years!

And just as I was coming to terms with the fact that I would be apartment searching for eternity, I caught a breakthrough. Someone posted that they were looking for someone to move in ASAP into their living room that had been converted into a bedroom. Long story short, I moved in the next day.

Well, I carried my suitcase up the six floors and slept on her air mattress, I mean. I went home that weekend, packed up absolutely everything I own, went on a shopping spree and then headed back to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Thankfully, Julia came with me and assisted in carrying everything from tubs of clothes to my futon up the six flights of stairs.

It is a tiny apartment. But it's my apartment. There are so many people that don't understand what is so alluring about moving to the big city. I'm not here to try to convince you. Either you love it or you don't.

I think we all have those times in our lives where we get so focused on working toward something that by the time we reach it, we are unimpressed and want to move on. That is certainly not the case here.

People will ask me several times a week if I still like my job and STILL like living in the city. My answer? It gets better each week.