Your first apartment will be a disaster. You come to New York in search of something. Your life is still in the process of formation. This means you probably don’t have a job, or much money. So you have to take what you can get, at first. For me, that meant a matchbox-sized place in the East Village, with fleas and ceilings that routinely caved in. But take heart! Because…
Anna Pitoniak
Your second apartment will be better. And your second job will be better. If New York seems impossible when you first arrive, that’s because it is; because you haven’t found your footing yet. It takes time. The city may be daunting, but you’ll get better and better finding your groove within it.
The subway is your friend. It’s safe, it’s clean (for the most part), and it runs 24 hours a day. It’s almost always faster to take the subway instead of a cab—and it’s definitely always cheaper. The subway is one of New York’s greatest assets, and it makes the city your playground.
The parks are your friend, too. You must find ways to escape the intensity from time to time, and this is where Central Park comes in—or Riverside Park, or Prospect Park, or any of the green spaces in the city. A sunny afternoon spent lounging on the grass, watching the breeze play in the trees, and you’ll almost forget where you are.
Times Square is to be avoided at all costs. If you’re a tourist visiting for the first time, then sure, there’s some novelty to it. But if you live in New York, you learn very quickly that Times Square is a nightmare. The only decent time to go to Times Square is when it’s completely empty, like at 3 a.m. during a blizzard, and I don’t know why you’d do that.
During a heat wave, the water is the best place to be. If you’re like me, you don’t have access to a sailboat or a yacht. But that’s okay, because New York has plenty of free rides. When the city gets sweltering hot, head for the Staten Island ferry, or the water taxi to Red Hook. You’ll feel so good that you’ll almost forget about your air conditioning bill.
You can eat like a king for just a few bucks. The true New York City meal is one eaten cheaply and on the go: a slice of pizza on a paper plate, a styrofoam container of halal meat over rice. New York can be expensive, but it’s also a place where you can get dinner for two dollars.
Culture is there for the taking. Gallery openings, bookstore readings, off-off-Broadway plays, museums, outdoor concerts, the opera, the ballet—there is incredible culture to be found everywhere you look. It’s one of the best things about New York, and so much of it can be done for free, or on the cheap. No excuses!
Even the big city sometimes feels like a small town. Out of the eight million people in New York, how likely is it that you run into your friend on the subway platform, or on the sidewalk, or at the coffee shop? But it does happen, and more than you think. Those are the moments when you’ll realize that, against the odds, you’ve made a home for yourself in this crazy place.
