I’ve visited New York on two occasions, first for two weeks in the summer and second for three months from Autumn to Winter.
Both times had a distinctly different flavour to them.
New York in the summer was brilliant and alive and oozing with interesting people and social events. It was the first time I visited a new city and felt like I belonged there. There was so much novelty and so much to do. My stay was completely unplanned and every encounter was serendipitous. It was also my first encounter with co-living communities (i.e. Fractal) situated in dense urban centres.
My visit felt too short and I left with a distinct sense that I wanted to live there.
My second encounter with New York was more planned. I lived there for three months doing an intensive software engineering bootcamp. I still lived at the co-living community but this time NYC felt different. Many of the people I had loved being around before had moved. Fractal co-living had a distinctly younger cast of characters.
I wasn’t a tourist this time but was experiencing New York the way someone working a 60-80 hour/week job would. I stayed mostly in Brooklyn and made a few trips into Manhattan when I needed to, but generally avoided it. Manhattan is a bit too much for my nervous system to handle.
This time I noticed a lot more the edges of New York: the dirtiness, the poor sanitation, the mental illness, the busyness, the intensity, the lack of easily accessible green spaces, the subways constantly smelling like piss and looking filthy, the distinct sense of it being a low-trust society.
Every where I went I would meet wonderful interesting people. I made lots of friends and I immersed myself in a culture of working extremely hard and pushing my limits. And I loved that. But the colder it got, the more I longed for home.
The colder it got, the more difficult it was to want to be social. Winter in New York is cold and grey and depressing. On the flip-side there are wonderful cozy places to go and shelter from the biting cold.
But I think i’m just not much of a winter guy. I need the warm days and ample sunlight to feel fully alive.
I’ve never been in a place as socially charged and interesting as New York. There’s never a lack of things to do. It’s effortless to make friends. There are so many parts of NYC to explore.
There’s a sense of ambition and dedication to hard work here that i’ve never come across before and it’s electrifying. I feel like it’s become a part of me and I hope it doesn’t fade when I leave.
The food in New York is incredible. The best of every possible cuisine. So much choice and so much excellence from competition.
The groceries in New York suck. They’re overpriced and not worth the quality, unless you get it boutique and organic.
There are so many parts of it I haven’t explored yet. So many parts of Brooklyn I haven’t explored. I’ve barely set foot in Manhattan. It’s a huge place that would take me years of living here to truly get to know.
I think New York is a wonderful city and certainly one of the greats in the world. But to me it’s a place I only want to be in the summer time.
Summer time, and the livings easy.