By | Kiara Moore (February 2023)
It’s been a little over a month since I have been here in New York. It has been such a rollercoaster: emotionally, physically, and mentally. I think something to recognize is that everyone’s experience is always going to be different, and that although it’s fearful, embrace it, instead of running from it.
Let’s start with the facts: New York is expensive as hell. The most important part about moving anywhere is to save money, but with NYC, you need to save double. Honestly, for all the shopaholics, save triple; I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been to Zara since I arrived. Although budgeting can be a pain most of the time, it has taught me a lot of self-control and organization here. Not only am I more financially conscious, but I have also been able to organize my life’s schedule a little more. I decide what days I am going to buy coffee or whether I plan to make it at home. When I tell you the urge to order every night, which is sooooooo tempting, I mean it. It’s food on every corner, and they even have door dashers on bikes and scooters! Unfortunately, if I bought food every night here, I would owe money to the IRS for sure. I now buy groceries by the meal; I think about how many times I want to cook throughout the week, and how long the meals/ leftovers would last, and I try to make everything stretch. This helps me minimize the urge to eat out and pushes me to engage with my favorite hobby: cooking!
Another interesting factoid: although there are so many thrills to moving to a new place, adjusting can easily become overwhelming. Not only do you have to learn your way around, but you also have to adjust to the culture. The three biggest things I’ve learned while being in New York are that people are going to be rude to you [don’t take it to heart], do not act like a tourist [the street wanderers will notice and pick on you], and lastly, if you want to do something, go make friends, or do it by yourself. Personally, I’ve always grown up in an environment surrounded by friends, especially back home in Chicago. If there is an activity to be done, a restaurant to try, I guarantee, me and my girls were on it. That’s not the same here. I do have a few friends here, but there was still a sense of loneliness that I found myself having on a Friday or Saturday night. There was such a strong urge to find Black girls with like minds here, seeing as though I am the only Black girl in my major here. I had to force myself to learn how to be comfortable being uncomfortable, meaning going to Black social events with organizations such as Gyrl Wonder, or evening taking trips to Soho by myself and just vibing. It did take me a while to get to this point [even now I am not fully there], a lot of tears, and long talks with family and friends, but it was a necessary growing pain.
Truthfully, I have had a blast while being here, but I felt I needed to be honest, real, and raw. I wanted to look past what you can see from social media and speak on how life can be tough as hell, but you just have to be tougher. Everyone keeps asking, “Ki, How’s NYC?” Well, this here is your answer. It’s everything it’s cracked up to be, and not at the same time. One thing for certain, two things for sure, this is the city where dreams are made of [ but there will be a few nightmares along the way].
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