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5 posts tagged NYC
NY vs. SF
I was born in Manhattan. (I was almost born on the PATH train. Poor Mom.) I grew up in New Jersey. (Nine years in Jersey City, nine years in Chatham.) We didn’t really have rec soccer or community pools or dance classes or things like that in Jersey City. Instead, my parents took us into New York, to museums and plays mostly. My sister and I knew how to behave in a nice restaurant from a fairly young age. When we went to dinner parties at my parents’ friends’ apartments in the city, I would admire the architecture and wish that we lived in a fancy apartment instead of a boring house. I went into the city for acting and playwriting and illustration classes and learned to navigate the subway by myself. I spent my whole life waiting to live in New York.
I sent in my early decision application to NYU, scheduled my Tisch audition, and prepared my monologues, but on the day of the deadline, I rushed to my guidance counselor and begged him to call NYU and withdraw my application. I had suddenly realized that I wanted to go to a liberal arts school in New England instead, and Middlebury was my first choice because it looked so pretty in the poster in the guidance counselor’s office.
When Ed and I graduated, we broke up because he wanted to look for jobs in the Bay Area and I wanted to live in New York. I lived in an apartment in the East Village for a couple months, but spent a lot of time at my parents’ house in Chatham because it was so hot and we didn’t have air conditioning and I couldn’t find a job. Then I moved home because the apartment was too expensive and I still couldn’t find a job. Then I moved to San Francisco because I missed Ed.
At first I insisted that I would only live in California for two years or so, and then we’d move to New York together, where Ed would go to grad school. It’s been more than three years now and I love San Francisco and have no desire to leave anytime soon. We’ll have to go back eventually, because my parents are in New Jersey and Ed’s are in Westchester and most of our closest friends live in New York. And because New York is great, obviously. And I can’t imagine buying property or raising kids on the West Coast.
But.
I really think San Francisco is the better city. Even though it’s barely a city. It’s still the best one.
