live in New York City for one year

I’m a current college student completing a degree in Graphic Design and I want to experience it all and go to the place where original design is created. Plus being home to many famous immigrated artists such as Mondrian and many others and a transplant himself Andy Warhol my goal is to have a major in Graphic Design and a minor in Art History.

I’m going back to school and really trying to stay focused on saving money to move to NYC. It’s hard but it’s what I have to do.

I’m almost thirty, guess it’s time to start saving!!!

I came here after college. Still here. (Been a long time!)

I come from the “normal” part of the US where there’s a Wal-mart, plenty of parking and people don’t pay up the butt for rent, actually most people live in nice little suburbs and subdivisions called, “Morning Glory” or “Oak Park”. But I never back down from challenges and that’s why I moved here. I wanted a good job in advertising and was told New York was the place for it. Well it’s true. Being here, you’ll make more but you’ll also spend so much more as well. The trick is NOT to live in Manhattan, at least for your first year or so. You’ll never save any money that way. I live in Astoria in a nice one bedroom. And yes, it’s a little lonely, Okay very lonely. But stick it out. If you go out, why go out to a place that serves $12 dollar drinks where women have sticks up their butts and guys just happen to blurt out their income. There are plenty of dive bars and pubs and places where drinks are cheap, you just have to know where to go. Because if you’re looking to save, you will,

Ex. You have $100 left until payday and it’s the weekend, uh oh.

Atm: Take out $40 leave the rest just in case.
Brother Jimmy’s (upper east side): $4 drinks-you drink three which gives you a pleasant buzz
Pizza around the corner: $3.00
Gyro platter on the street (it’s a lot of food): $4.50
Movie: $12 friggin dollars-that’s why you see three for the price of 1.

And look how much you have left over. Okay so maybe it’s not that easy but you get my point. Because if you’re looking to blow all of that hard earned cash, trust me, NY will gladly help you do it.

it sucks. i’m lonely. the people are tough

4.5 months here in the city so far and I’m still feeling good about it, though I am a little exhausted. The hard part is feeling unstressed about money so I can actually work on other things that matter to me.

Things you need to do this:

1. Fortitude – Living in New York can be rough if you’re here by yourself, with few friends. The winters can drive you insane with their many cold and grey days. If you’re not coming for school, or you’re out of school and moving here by yourself, prepare to feel lonely – even with so many people around.

2. Money – You need a lot of it. Don’t bring debt here, because it’ll grow exponentially. Living in New York costs so much more with regard to general commodities like food; rent is ridiculous; there’s transportation costs to consider if you’re not living IN the city, not to mention you can’t walk EVERYWHERE; and if you wanna party every weekend, expect to pay out the nose.

3. A Reasonable Expectation – New York is a place with a diverse group of people who are all here for different reasons: they’re here for school, they’re here for work, or they’ve just always been here. You should have a reasonable expectation of what you want to get out of your time here, otherwise you might just be wasting a lot of money on rent for 12 months.

Of the things I listed that you need to live here, the only one I still possess is “fortitude.” I could go on living here forever, I think. But I don’t have the money, having racked up crazy debt from my time at school here and the following graduation. And I don’t feel like I have a reasonable expectation of what I should get from being here.

I’ve done this, and I think it’s worth it, if you have a good reason. If I can get the other two things in order, I’d love to come back and do this again, but for a longer amount of time.

I did a VISA eligibility test the other day and i was all happy thinking that id be eligible, got the results and…

“Sorry, you are not eligible to live in america”

Just as simple as that, in 8 words my dream… gone… shattered :[

I just stared blankly at the screen for about 5 minutes! then i cried :[

So i have 2 options i can:

either settle for 3 months there when i really want to go for 9 months

OR

do one of the following:

1. Buy a house within the next year (highly unlikely considering i currently earn 7.30 an hour and am only 16)

2. Some how find a relative living in America… pfft as if!

3. or Find a job offer in New York before i go

Then i will be eligible! Im praying on option 3 as that seems most likely and will have to find a job once i get there anyway so i guess i can try before i go, although i imagine applying for a job from halfway across the world will be a difficult process.

Oh well ill never give up hope, i want this so bad!

If I wasn’t stubborn I’d give up. Actually, if I didn’t have a lease that would ask me to give 30 days notice and charge 15-18% on top of my current mind blowing rent as a fee for subletting and also has $6,900 of my money as a deposit, THEN I’d give up. Being here isn’t easy. I am quite social, but my job wears me down and makes me want to run home and retreat, so meeting people and going out is hard. It’s remarkably easy to feel lonely here, and I don’t love my job…so I want to run home. but I NEED to stick this out A) to grow B) to enjoy the city, which I will regret if I don’t and C) kick freaking ass, because I know I can.