Bright Lights, Bigger City

“In New York your always looking for a job, a boyfriend, or an apartment,” couldn’t have said it better myself Carrie. I got the job, I have a boyfriend, but an apartment, well, that’s a whole different story. When I was offered the job to intern at BCBGMAXAZRIA in June I took it right away, not even thinking about where I was going to live.

I thought living downtown in The Village would be the perfect place to live so I could surround myself by other college students and old friends. However, when I began my search I found most places to be ridiculously small and expensive. The biggest problem was that no one was offering a short-term lease. So when the opportunity came to rent my family friends apartment from October through December on the Upper West Side my parents were thrilled, I however was more than displeased. Though the apartment was massive, down the street from my cousins, and had a washer and dryer a few feet from my bedroom (this is a huge deal in Manhattan), I felt like I was going to be bored and not experience New York since I was so far away from all my friends. But, the terms were right so for the first three months I was meant to be living on 97^th and Central Park West. Instead, two, not three, months later I ended up moving out for the month of December because my grandpa was in Florida, so free rent meant moving to his studio by Lincoln Center. When January 1 finally came I was able to move into, what better be my last destination, my best friend’s apartment in Murray Hill.

From the beginning Murray Hill was always the spot I wanted to live and what I was looking forward too. I thought this was the location to have the time of my life, explore the city, and meet tons of people. But after living in three different apartments in the past four months I realized all the benefits of living so many places. The ability to live in various neighborhoods has really allowed me to see how big this city truley is. I also saw the benefits of the different areas and looking back at the different locations, my grandpa’s apartment was my favorite. Lincoln Center has everything, Trader Joes one block to the left and Zara one block to the right. Best of all I was able to get to work in ten minutes via the 1 train. I learned that the Upper West Side in general has the best public transportation system. There were so many different subway lines available and I knew I could go from 97^th and Central Park to Soho in thirty minutes. Now that I’m on the East Side I find myself doing a lot more walking and waking up earlier each morning. Though I am having more fun living with my best friend on the East Side, I realized I would have had even more fun with her if we lived on the West Side. My advice to anyone going out on co-op would be to not look for the swankiest location or most college friendly town, but to look for an awesome roommate and for the location that will be most convenient to get to work and just around the city in general. Because remember, New York is full of bright lights, but its an even bigger city and you want to be able to explore every part of it.