College and NYC comparison from my view...
11/10/2008 12:37 p.m. | Personal
Similarities
Diet: Mostly Pizza. Costs more in NYC.
Travel: Lots of walking, some public transportation. In TX though, I had a car and would drive maybe 10 miles a day.
Time spent on internet: most.
Free-time spent watching TV Shows, movies, or playing xbox on big TV: 3 hours a day, more on weekends.
Meeting new people: maybe 1 a week.
Keeping up with new people: 1 in 4.
Differences
Rent cost: NYC = TX*3
Frequency of airport visits: once a year in TX, once a month in NYC.
Income: this should be obvious
The overall message of this is that my life hasn't really changed all that much. When I begin to wonder if I am missing out on culture here in the city, I then start to wonder what kind of culture I missed out on at A&M. There I spent most time either relaxing or doing CP (or class of course). Here in NYC I spend most time at work, or relaxing, or helping out on some small projects. There were many other organizations at A&M that I was not involved in. Should I have cut back on CP and expanded or was my time better spent focusing on CP? I think many of the members would agree that it was properly spent. So again, here in NYC, I really don't feel like I am missing out on too much. There may be a free art show or good happy hour or whatever going on tonight, but I would honestly rather be watching Chuck and Heroes and eating pizza. Is that a bad thing?
Part of the problem I see with the internet (and a bit with this city) is information overload. There are too many things to do. You can't do them all. The same can be said for skills or trades. You have to spend time to become good at something and you can't be good at everything. I have tried that at some stages in life, but eventually have found to just do what I enjoy and not worry. This parallels with all that is going on in the city. I really don't care. What would make this place more valuable is if it has things that I am interested in doing. I like blogging, and am very excited about a meetup this Thursday. It is superseding my desire to sit at home and watch The Office. That is good, but I don't think that means I need to be doing something like that every night.
The other problem comes with trying to balance relaxing and productivity, laziness and activeness. I have started a new blog that will be different from this one. It will hopefully take on a less personal tone, and will focus on movie and TV show reviews. I figure that is an area where I have some expertise, or at the very least a ton of experience. I was watching some old episode of Scrubs last night and was able to quote about a third of it. (Season Four, Episode 10. There is a witch hat and a Kill Bill-style fight.) Perhaps there are people out there who would be interested in my insight on shows or movies. Right now it is not as easy as I thought, because TV watching is supposed to be lazy, not work. But I am coming around on it, and producing better quality as my energy is better for it.
What this has in common with the original premise is that the things I enjoy doing are not really tied to a city. Many things I like are available in most cities. But the major difference thus far has been family and friends. While I am making friends here, I am not really a pro at it. It comes with time, but that time is time I am losing at home. I have a gf to miss, a brother who is becoming a taller boy (not a man yet), an almost brother who finally got back to Texas after 5 years, and a slew of other folks that I used to connect with regularly. So the collective advantage of NYC is currently being outweighed in my mind by the advantage of TX. I guess I thought that it would have tipped some by now, but with slowdowns in work across the country and less enthusiasm from people as a whole, I think my adventure is starting to show that the grass isn't so greener in the big apple. The high from moving here has worn off a bit, and what felt like a big vacation now feels like an expensive apartment. Of all the things that aren't so great, the weather hasn't been bad at all. Maybe it will be the final tipping point, or perhaps another big change will happen.
I read a quote recently that described an adventure and an inconvenience as the same thing, except one has a positive view and the other doesn't. I know I saw this as an adventure, but others in my life have seen it both ways. Either way, I am a very happy person. I have nice things, a warm bed (sometimes too much so), good food, and people who care about me and depend on me. Overall I am enjoying life, but I can't help but wonder if I might enjoy life somewhere else more. But it's thinking like that which brought me here, so it is logical that it might also take me back?