The Realities of NYC in Your 20s: The Best is Yet to Come.

What better way to live out your twenties than in the wonderful world that is NYC! Going out with your friends on the weekends, stylish trips to SOHO, apartment dinner parties that end in a late night fire escape yap sesh. It’s anyone’s dream come true…if it were only that simple.

Social media can paint a very false picture of how life in New York CIty is, especially in your twenties, crappy apartments, multiple jobs, unstable relationships…grocery shopping in the rain when the Trader Joe's bag handle rips five blocks from your door, anyone else? It can be easy to fall victim to the image that is painted online of what life is like here, so here I am to break it down.

My first apartment was in fact infested with roaches, barely had heat or hot water in the winter, and had a sliding bathroom door that was stuck wide open. Did I stay there for two years? Yes. Did I also post pictures and videos that made my life there look perfectly aesthetic? Also yes. People looking in from the outside would never know that I had to throw out yet another coffee maker that became the home to a little unsuspecting roach family, but I and so many others here in the city must go through the “shitty apartment” in order to get to the “slightly less shitty apartment.”

My college experience also came with a basically full-time customer service job, and I could still barely afford day-to-day expenses…once I found out the hard way that Uber’s downtown to fancy dinners followed by bar hopping around the East Village weren’t actually “necessities.” Between school and work, not only did my priorities get scrambled up, but as I started dipping into my “rent money” savings account to pay for eggs and a loaf of sourdough, it became obvious that just because I live on the Upper East SIde, does not mean I am Blair Waldorf, not even Jenny.

When I moved here, I was so excited to finally be in my “Carrie” era, waltzing around the West Village with my power girl group living our fabulous lives together, but I soon found out that finding close friends and relationships here may just be the biggest challenge of all. Life moves so fast, schedules get filled in an instant. Once my path stopped conveniently crossing with “my best friends,” the texting to make plans, talking about what’s new in our lives, and connection as a whole was lost. Almost four years into living here, I can confidently say I finally have my people. My people who don’t just see me as a convenient option. We can see each other once a month, or every day, but no matter what, I know they are my biggest support here, and I am also over here cheering them on just the same, always eager to hear “what’s up.”

I could certainly go on, and part two may be coming, but with all that being said, I can still say with my full chest that there is absolutely nowhere else I would rather live than my overpriced studio apartment in the greatest city in the world. You just have to know when to fall for the falsities or check into reality. I say come to NYC, give it a try, but first, take off the rose colored glasses and don’t believe everything you see on TikTok.