Thursday, August 28, 2008
20-something in New York
This feature appeared in the New York Times this week. Thought it was worth watching. Interesting take on 20-something anomie. There's such poignancy in hearing people try to explain their decisions to move to New York and then to stay and make a life here. I tend to feel like the real reasons are submerged somewhere under these superficial statements.
Thanks David for bringing this to our attention. I get the times but in the mass of paper it is easy to miss something.
ReplyDeleteWhat a piece! At first glance it seemed much more suited for "This American Life" than the times, but I am glad they did it. What I find the most interesting is how the expereinces of these people differ, and are yet the same.
Moving to NYC is scary, but you feel like you must do it to prove something. As the saying goes from the great Kander and Ebb song "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" and that feeling is felt all over America. There is just a certain, "coolness" you achieve when you move to New York. You could personally be living in a cardboard box and eating top ramen, but when you go to visit family anywhere in the USA they say.....this is Billy...he lives in NY. People pause, and you are instantly elevated to some ridiculous status. It is so silly, but its the truth. Everybody wants to live here. Which is why it is also funny that Nyers want to get out as much as they can.
I've lived a whole bunch of places before I finally got to NYC in my early 20's. I always wanted to live here, but I am not happier or more depressed here than I have been anywhere else. The CITY itself doesn't make me happier or lonelier, (or cooler or smarter or more ridiculous) but it does tend to bring to my attention what's going on inside of me. It's easy to ignore what I am really feeling when there are so many distractions, as there are in NYC.
ReplyDeleteI'm taken aback by your patronizing tone -- I find none of their statements to be superficial; rather quite honest and real. Just because they aren't pontificating directly about their individual existential crisis they are being open and raw about their very immediate and honest feelings -- something that doesn't immediately correlate to superficiality by necessity. I got the sense that they very much know about the deeper conflict going on inside each of them that is, for whatever reason, manifested in their struggles in NYC.
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ReplyDeletewell put. they are honest, if nothing else. what i'm driving at is that my own experience of coming to new york was driven by deep, unspoken ego needs. i would never have called them that... until now. i find life here very difficult, and most of what keeps me here circulates around a need to be at the mythical center of the world, to be important. to be able to make meaning and make an impact in a big place. in terms of quality of life (which for me centers around community, value, and diversity), new york is not a great place to live.
I have to agree here. Yes we have world class arts, food, architecture, etc here....BUT you must have a world class salary to partake in it. Some say that is the cost of living here, if you want to live in NYC pay the price. It is worth it......I am starting to think it is not. When I look at what I pay in rent, and the fact that in some states that is a mortgage payment.....I have to wonder. I am by no means packing my bags, but I no longer pretend NYC is all it is cracked up to be.
ReplyDeleteAs one who is about to leave New York City after ten years here, I can atest to both sentiments. When I came here it was for a job opportunity that turned into a 10 year career. It was great to be in, what some people consider, the greatest city in the world. Still with the amount of time spent in an office or up late at night or working on weekends, I felt that I missed out on some things. My career is changing and my life in New York City is done. Someday I may return but I know deep down that I have lived here the last 10 years the best way I know how. I often say that it wasn't really for the career that I came here. It might have been in God's plan that I find a church home where I could grow on many different levels. I'm doing something I was previously afraid to do, but sometimes we must do what we fear the most in order to continue our journeys as human beings and children of God.
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