It’s Monday, August 25. You’ve got an empty moleskine notebook in one hand, a five-dollar latte in the other, and the remaining $16 in your bank account slowly withering away in your back right pocket. You know you over-tipped the cab driver on the way here (your first mistake was taking a cab) and you’re almost positive one ounce of espresso mixed with foamy milk shouldn’t cost as much as a full meal, but you nod your head and smile anyways because, well, duh–you’re in New York.
Ah, you’re a freshman. Don’t sweat it though, I’m not here to judge you–I’m right here with you–a weird, confused, excited freshman at The New School.
Now if you’re originally from some faraway land like me–of course I consider a far away land to be the little beach town I grew up in on the west coast–then you probably find living in New York City is kind of a big deal.
That’s because we all come into the city with high expectations of this inverted reality of New York. We make up ideas in our head of some massively glamourous city where Bergdorf’s is affordable and you live in a 3,400 square foot apartment on the Upper East Side. We see the high rises of the skyline and envision the Wall Street warriors and high-priced lawyers that make their home in the tall giants. And we subconsciously blind ourselves to the dirt, the sweat, and the tears that make up the greater majority. We are swept up into believing that an Empire State of Mind refers to your guaranteed success the moment you drive through the Holland Tunnel. But we don’t know the nitty, gritty, real New York. The stuff that makes Manhattan Manhattan. And that scares us.
Because we’re not New Yorkers yet.
You don’t become a New Yorker when you see your first cockroach. You become a New Yorker when you can feel every piece of New York rushing through your arteries, spewing venom through your veins. When the sound of an ambulance at 3:00 am does little to disturb your nighttime rest. When the heat of the underground pours through the sidewalk and erupts in a pressure firing up from your feet. When you can feel, taste, and touch the city completely blind.
You become a New Yorker when you adjust.
One of the first things I noticed upon arrival at the New School is the need and essentiality for students (myself included) to indulge in expensive and overlong meals. Solution: use the school cafeteria. If you are living in any New School dorm you will be automatically enrolled in a New School meal plan of a minimum of $750 per semester which means you have already payed in advance for food you may not even be eating. Spending $20 a day on outside meals adds up to $600 a month.
Next: laundry. Why are you spending money for someone to toss your undies in a retro-circular machine and charge you some insane amount to fold them after? Hello–doing laundry takes all of seven minutes per load and that’s including transportation to and from the basement laundry room. In the dorms, you get a laundry card with $3 credit to start off, which dings your total laundry cost down to six dollars a month (including socks).
On transportation: from a financial standpoint the best options are to take the subways for any destination over 1.5 miles. For anything less, walk. It will do wonders for your bank account, and if you insert walking every so often, your health. Single metro rides are relatively affordable at just $5.00 per round trip (a cab or Uber could charge up to six times as much) and you can get almost anywhere twice as fast on the subway.
Don’t forget student discounts. Your gym probably offers one. The Apple store will give you $100 off with a school ID, and even tickets to the movies are cheaper. Don’t be afraid to ask–from clothing companies, to restaurants, student discounts are the new marketing fad.
And with that, remember to avoid subjecting yourself to the aura of stress that surrounds many-let’s face it, most-New Yorkers. Freshman means fresh start. So begin again. Create something. Get a job. Volunteer. You came here for glamour and all you got was grunge but don’t give up.
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