Monday, November 9, 2009

A Week Retrospective

A week ago yesterday I moved to New York.

As I closed up shop at work last night, I walked outside and headed towards the train.  I could look to my left and I could gaze at the trees in Central Park, to my right my eyes could be blinded my the lights of Times Square.  I am in New York.

I realize it’s going to take time to feel like I live here, because at the moment it all seems a bit fuzzy and unreal.  I haven’t even come close to grasping the trains, or the grid system.  When people tell me where they live I smile and nod because nine times out of ten I have no idea what they are talking about.  As someone who likes to know whats going on around her, it’s a bit of an adjustment to be naïve. 

I have been thinking a lot about how it felt to move to Chicago and how long it took me to feel as though I understood the city, to feel like a Chicagoan.  The major difference between then and now is being a student provided me with a set of “walls” in which to  grow.  Whether they be walls of a dorm room, a classroom, or the invisible walls around a campus street, I had an environment I immediately understood.  I could slowly step out of these streets, as I felt comfortable, and begin to understand this new city that I now called home.  Now there are no real walls to speak of, I just have to figure it out.  I know I can do this, I just have to be patient.

Ah patience, a virtue I have never possessed.

2 comments:

  1. You'll settle in before you know it! When I moved to Chicago (no walls at all - no job, no school, and only 1 friend) everything seemed completely foreign, but by the end of the first week I knew I would love it here and by the end of the year it was home.

    In another few months, you'll look back and wonder that you ever felt lost!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Ashley: thank you for the words of encouragement. Iremember thinking that chicago felt like home almost a year after i moved. maybe nyc will feel like home faster since everything moves so quickly here??

    ReplyDelete