move out of New York City

I’m THRILLED to say that my boyfriend, who is very family oriented, is very seriously considering moving to the west coast. This is SHOCKING to me. He was always on the cautious side when I would mention moving out of NY. A typical response would be, “Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there” or “We don’t have to think about that for years”... I always thought that it was because his family is in New York and he wouldn’t want to leave.

I’m a big planner. I think WAYYYYYY ahead and, to me, 2011 is NOT that far away. I think that he’s finally realized how fast time is flying and we’ll both be graduating in a year or so (he from law school, me from graduate school).

Now he’s really started sticking to his exercise routine because, he says, “We’ll probably be on the beach in a year!” (I tried to hide my surprise). The BIG change in his thinking became apparent when he said, “I really need to find an internship that pays next summer. I’m really draining my savings. If I have more in the bank, we could just move to L.A. and then start job searching. I don’t necessarily need to already have a job to move there.” HE’S REALLY THINKING ABOUT IT (YAYYYYYY!). Not only is he thinking about it, but my normally VERY cautious boyfriend is seriously considering just moving without a “reason” to move.

This has made me so happy! I think I can attribute this dramatic change in attitude to law school. The career services department has been mentally preparing them for a terrible job market for attorneys in 2011. Articles have been written in the Times about how it will still be bad for law students. He’s definitely realized that he needs to keep a very open mind about where to apply for jobs AND that the job search process is really just around the corner. He’s also completely warmed up to the idea of living in warmer climates. I’ve been with him for 3 years and I never realized that he hated winter even more than I do!

This turn of events is FANTASTIC. It’s funny how as soon as I stopped talking about moving out of New York all the time, he totally took to the idea! Silly boy :-)

At the VMAs this year Jay-Z and Alicia Keys played one of the most beautiful anthems and tributes to New York OF ALL TIME! (hehehe) It almost ought to be made the official town song. ...And it broke my heart that I didn’t believe a word of the lyrics.

It’s nice to see that I’m not alone. I was born and raised in New York, almost 21 years of my life now, but I despise this city. The greed is disgusting and crippling, the phoniness of the people is maddening, sirens and car noises every other minute (really sucks to be you if you’re right by a train) and I can’t stand Bloomberg who ruined my high school years when he blocked all school transfers and I was kept barred up in Washington Irving while it was still “Dangerous Dozens,” while he wasn’t busy imprisoning thousands of law-abiding citizens in a chemically-stained bus depot so he could brown-nose the Republican party, over-developing the city and raising rents all over the place.

I’ve noticed that life in this city feels alot like living on a highway, it’s not settled, it doesn’t feel like a home. It’s definitely a nice place to visit (briefly), but it’s a terrible place to try to live (and if you’re not pulling in the big bucks, be prepared to have the worst job search of your life looking for a second or third job just to get by, if you can find one that is). There’s stuff to do I guess, a lot of it very superficial and expensive, but this city just leaves you jaded and lonely, and all those supposedly great material things that supposedly make NYC the greatest place in the world just start to feel incredibly overrated. There’s got to be someplace better than this.

To be fair though there are those that like or don’t mind those same things I dislike about the city, which just means that NYC is better suited to whoever those people are, not me.

I was born and raised in New York City. It really is the greatest city in the world. It’s funny, so many of my friends are people who moved here from other places around the country, and around the world. People wanted to move to come here, someplace I was lucky enough to be born in. The one downside is, because there is so much culture and beauty and so many things going on right here, I never traveled much. I have always wanted to travel. I want to live in NYC because I choose to, not because I happened to be born here and never decided to look elsewhere. So I think I might want to move somewhere else, a new city, a fresh start, etc. Not to mention the middle class is virtually disappearing here. I make what most people would consider to be a very respectable income, and it would keep me very comfortable in pretty much any other place (with a few exceptions, of course) but here, it is barely enough to live on. I’m living paycheck to paycheck, and unfortunately, I’m in a government job where the salary is fixed, and I can’t go asking my boss for a raise or anything. So I might have to move to find somewhere with a somewhat lower cost of living. I do want to move somewhere anyway, like I said, to see what other places are like, to get a fresh start. But I have no idea how to even go about starting to look into the process. It seems so daunting.

I’m a native New Yorker and I’m over the city. I’ve been here my whole life and am not feeling the way the city has changed in the past 10 years. It used to be a city of neighborhoods and people but now it’s all Disney-fied and full of Sex and the City wannabes. There are more chain stores here than in the Mall of America and very little left here that I love. My friends have moved away and I’ve been unlucky in love in this city for far too long. A change of scenery will do me good.
My entire family lives here so there’s solace in the fact that if I change my mind, I’ll have somewhere to stay ;)

When I was growing up, all I wanted to do was live and work in New York. Now, after almost five years, I’m sick of it: The overcrowded subways, the cold people, the workaholic culture – I’M DONE!!! I want out of this city in the next four years.

I’ve made small progress… I’ve moved to Forest Hills in Queens. Much quieter, but just not far enough. I’m toying with the idea of Northern California or maybe even down South – Savannah would be great!

I moved. And it sucks.

Fuck the red sox and Boston traffic.
Fuck the bullshit T that never comes
Fuck the hideous Boston accent.

I miss you, New York.
I miss you, Queens.
I miss you, lovely E train.

This is a weird city to live in. I was born here so I really had no choice. It’s not like I could walk out of Queens at 12 and go to the country. So I guess it may be different for people who aren’t from the city but travelled here. It’s also a little different because I never lived in Manhattan, but the outer boroughs. In a favorite movie of mine, Sidewalks of New Yorks, one character says to Heather Graham that the people in the outer boroughs don’t take the city for granted, they grow up feeling the draw of the city but never fully experiencing it. Well, something like that, i’m a horrible paraphraser.

So I picked a high school in the city to get the full experience and I have. I’ve been everywhere. I’m sure there are little alcoves I haven’t discovered, but i’ve covered all the bases. If there’s one place you can never stop exploring, i’m sure it’s NYC, but that’s not the reason I want to leave.

I feel like i’m at heart, a country boy. I love nature and the envoirnment and all that jazz, am amazed at small towns and endless forests. The city doesn’t interest me all that much. So I applied to a college in Maine, was accepted, and will attend in less than a week.

Therein lies the love-hate relationship. Even though I feel like I am ready to leave, ready to explore and grow in my true element, i’m going to miss a lot about the city. The endless amounts of merchants, bums and crowds are offset by the beautiful city lights, the constant sense of life. I have my pride of being a New Yorker, my accent(that I swear I don’t have, but my outside friends say I do), my love for pizza and bagels, my brisk walking pace, and deep down a love for the concrete, skyscrapers, hipsters, subway cars and hoodlums.

Kinda makes it bittersweet.

Yep! I am finally going to do it, I have been here almost 10 years, and I think 10 years in NYC is enough to say I have experienced it all. But the reasons I moved here are gone for me, the things I love and are interested in I can do much more cheaply and easily in a smaller quieter city. Less distractions, and a place where people actually have time to have relationships with each other.

Plus I want to be closer to my family.

I love this city, but I wont stay here forever. Plus I hate the tourists…

New York is such a fucking stressful place to live in. I’m tired of insane people everywhere, of tourists crowding the subways, of not being able to walk down the street without being pushed or shoved. But on the other hand, I am in love with this city. I can get any food I want at any time of the day or night. I can act like a lunatic, and no one will even give me a second glance. I love the vibrancy, the mix of high and low, the beautiful people, and even the unattractive people are okay…

That’s why I’m going to aim for a college in New England. I figure four years away from the love of my life will be enough to make me miss this motherfucker like crazy.