The ten days that followed the apartment hunt before moving to the city were filled with many emotions – excitement to finally start this new chapter in my life, sadness to leave the life I had built behind and nervousness to know if I could actually make it in the big apple. Like Frank Sinatra said, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” I didn’t want to let myself down after how much I wanted this.
Immediately once I got back to Ohio, I felt the pressure of all I had to do. I had been on a special project in Cleveland for the past few months before moving so I hadn’t had time to start packing. When you live in the same place for over 5 years, you don’t realize how much you accumulate and can fit into a one bedroom apartment. Packing was a daunting task to say the least! There were many sleepless nights spent with my aunt Missy trying to get it all packed up in time. Knowing I was moving to NYC, where space is tight, I knew I couldn’t just pack everything and take it with me. For every piece of clothing I packed, I left two behind. And for those of you that know me, you know how many clothes we are talking about… Luckily I still have a room at my dad’s house where I can store all of the belongings that got left behind.
Family and friends celebrated the fourth of July at my dad’s house – one year from the day I met my then fiancé. Walking down the street hand in hand with him to watch fireworks at the end of the night, it dawned on me that I wasn’t going to just be down the hall from him in the apartment anymore. I had gotten spoiled by his close proximity and always having someone to do something with. I wished he was moving with me then but since he hadn’t gotten a job in NYC yet, the plan was for me to go on ahead without him and he would join me when he could.
I also had two going away parties – one in my home town at my dad’s house with friends and family and the other in Columbus with co-workers and friends. I realized how many people I would miss seeing on a regular basis. Thankfully there is social media to keep up but it definitely isn’t the same. When I first moved to Columbus in 2012, I had no friends in the area and five years later, I was celebrating in a restaurant full of people that had become near and dear to my heart.
I got to go golfing one last time with my uncle Durward who had signed me up for lessons the summer before. The instructor said I had potential but without the ability to practice too often, that potential didn’t become much more than that.
I spent the last weekend in Indianapolis with my sorority for a leadership conference where we unveiled that our new philanthropic focus would be fighting hunger. That couldn’t have ended up being more in line with one of the issues I face every single day in NYC. I constantly see people with signs saying they are hungry or see people pick through the trash. It breaks my heart to not being able to help everyone. My aunts Missy and Michelle send me care packages to put together bags with snacks and wipes that I can carry around with me to hand out if I see someone in need. It’s not much but it’s something and most of the time, the people seem appreciative. I’ve run into a few not so grateful people but I’ll tell those stories another time.
As soon as I pulled in the driveway that Sunday from the conference, we loaded up to head to NYC. My dad and Oleh had packed up the budget truck the night before so we could get on the road as soon as possible. My dad, Oleh, my sister Amelia, my aunt Missy and my cousin Sheila came along for the ride. And oh what a ride it would be!
I was driving my aunt’s van with all of the girls and my dad and Oleh were in the truck. It was already late afternoon so we wanted to try to get as far as we could that evening. We had movers meeting us at the apartment in the morning at 10 so we couldn’t be late. At one point on 71, the budget truck got stuck behind a semi, so I went around them so I could maintain a normal speed. Apparently that was a bad idea! Oleh was always a quick driver and the idea that I took the lead was not acceptable so he tried to speed up to catch me. As the highway took a bend, he sped up so quick and whipped in right in front of the car in front of me barely letting the car next to us get by. In that moment, my heart was pounding so fast. We wanted to make it to New York alive so I had to slow down at that point to encourage him to slow down too.
As night fell and we crossed the state line into Pennsylvania, we knew we would have to stop for food and gas. It would have to be a semi quick stop since we still had a ways to go so we stopped at a gas station that had a restaurant attached to it. Oleh was in a grumpy mood as he was still upset that I passed him on the road. I told him I didn’t realize I was supposed to stay behind him the whole time since we both have a GPS on our phones. It’s not the olden days where you actually had to all stay together. He and Amelia then got into a bit of a tizzy over what the plan from there was. He wanted to check into a hotel while the rest of us thought it would be better to keep going. We didn’t want to get stuck in rush hour traffic trying to get into the city in the morning. After some choice words were spoken, it was settled that we would stop at a rest area if needed since we would have minimal time to spare. We stopped for about an hour somewhere in the pitch black woods of Pennsylvania. Oleh was still pretty upset that we weren’t staying in a hotel so he got out of the truck and tried to sleep on top of a picnic table in front of the car – a sight I’ll never forget! Let’s just say that didn’t last too long before he climbed back in the truck!
From there we only had about three hours to go. We thought surely we would beat the Monday morning traffic, but wrong we were. That three hours vastly multiplied. We finally passed through New Jersey and crossed over the George Washington Bridge where my emotions started to overtake me. This was it. This was my new home. Seeing the “Welcome to New York” sign was years in the making and I almost couldn’t believe it was actually happening. I was going to be a real life New Yorker.
Since my apartment is on the Upper East Side, that bridge is only about 6 miles away. That last 6 miles took over an hour in traffic! I could have ran there faster! The movers were already there waiting for us when we arrived. We had only made the reservation for them to help us with the bigger items and a few boxes since we thought we could handle the rest but the movers assured me that they would do it all faster than we could and wouldn’t charge us any additional fees. We were unsure at first but we let them – and we weren’t charged any more thankfully! We took shifts sitting out in the hot sun on the street guarding the truck while they took load after load in. One man on the street asked my sister and I if we thought the street was our backyard but we didn’t care. The movers even put my bed together for me! It was so worth it! Instead of making many trips on our own, the movers got it all done in a matter of a couple hours!
Unpacking was even more stressful than packing. When you have limited space and a lot of stuff (and a lot of people), tensions sure get high! Not to mention the ratio of six people to one bathroom… We made an Ikea run in Jersey and put my whole guest bedroom together with new items we got there (or I should say my aunt Missy put it all together!) It was stressful and there were a few arguments along the way but somehow we managed and everything got put in its place.
In the last few days with my family there, we also managed to make time for sightseeing and my sister and I saw Anastasia on Broadway. Before Oleh flew back since he had to be back at work, we spent a whole day together walking around our new neighborhood while my family went off on their own. We went to breakfast at a little diner on the corner, visited the Met, we walked around the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park, walked to Carl Schurz park along the East River, and got some desserts at a little French restaurant on my block. I was sad to see him go. He was sad too. I could see it in his eyes. He wanted to be able to protect me and didn’t know how he could so far away. I assured him I would be okay but it didn’t make it any easier to say goodbye.
When the rest of my family left two days later, it really hit me that I was on my own. I had been on my own for five years in Columbus, but this was different. I was no longer an hour away to be able to come home on a moment’s notice if needed. Since my mom was sick the whole time I was in Columbus before she died, I had gotten used to seeing my family almost every weekend. This was going to be an adjustment on many levels. I was alone.
In a city with millions of people, I found myself in a whole new world – one in which I would have to make a new path for myself. A new start – a new beginning. The world was now at my fingertips and I could feel it.
Some of the places and companies featured in the blog tonight:
https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/attractions/reservoir/
https://www.carlschurzparknyc.org/
Alicia in the City 
How exciting for you and of course how very daunting. Enjoy getting to know NYC 🙂
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