My New Life

I started out on this journey of wandering not knowing where I would end up.  I had a good idea that the only other places I could enjoy living in for a few years (if not more) were big cities on the east coast.  Luckily, but sadly, I escaped the South to finally end up here.

DC was a bust from the beginning.  I thoroughly enjoy being there and there's a certain exhilaration and excitement that one gets when walking around the city.  It's a city without actually being a city.  It's homey but you can't really feel "at home."  Everyone says it's a great place for young people but it really isn't.  It's a lovely place - one where you could wander for hours and never bore of the sites you're seeing - and, let's face it, it's where our country happens.  The life coming out of DC is unmatchable and for however much people will try to deny how attractive it is, they all feel it.

I'll be back to DC. This is certain.

Life happened really fast in the past week.  Actually, I can barely believe it's already been a week!  I knew that I'd be stopping in NYC for an indefinite time period to decide if I wanted to live there.  When I started only hearing back from jobs there and no other city (more or less), I started to question what was coming for me.  I'm pretty sure none of my family members or closest friends would've predicted that I'd end up in New York.  They aren't surprised, that's for sure, but most put me in Boston...a couple went for my gut and told me I'd end up in DC.  One great friend who usually has spot-on advice said I'd never leave the South...he was half right.

Then, while walking down the firefly-lit hill in Asheville, NC, I received a message from my best friend from high school.  She's one of those people that you don't really consider a friend - she's basically family.  In the message, she offered for me to come live with her starting July 1st in Brooklyn.  She and her roommates had better housing opportunities if there were four people instead of three and I was looking for a place to call home.  Soon enough I'll know whether or not I made the best decision or the worst decision of my young, wide-eyed life.

I told her that I was ready to move to New York and that I trusted whatever she thought was best.

My mind was in a bit of shock and I didn't realize what I had done until the next morning.  I always "realize" things in the shower (you do too, don't deny it) and when I got out, made myself "ready for the day", grabbed my pajamas off the floor, and stepped out into the living room, my host, Justin, was standing there asking if I was ready to go grab some breakfast.  I just stood there for a couple seconds dumbfounded and said, "I'm really not sure what I'm ready for but I know that my life is going to be a lot of city for the next few years."

DC kind of moved in a fog.  I was dead-tired and there were so many people to see and meet...so much food to eat!  About 30 minutes after leaving DC I received another text from my friend, Eleni, in Brooklyn claiming that they had found a great place and wanted to put a deposit down right away.

I guess at first I was overcome with adrenaline.  I set out looking for a new home and didn't really know where I was going to end up...I honestly didn't care as long as I felt right wherever it was.  I came close to not even making it this far.  I love you, New Orleans! I love you, Alabama! Let's throw Mississippi in there, too.  And after more than a month I could finally say that I was going home.  My new home.  And what I had said from the beginning still holds mostly true: I have never been to Brooklyn.  I was moving to a place I'd never been to.

I was blasting my music and looking like an idiot with a huge grin while going through toll booth after toll booth between DC and NYC.  I was going home!  Everything was ending and beginning at the same time.

The first night was spent being a 14-year old girl gleefully giggling and gossiping with Eleni since we hadn't seen each other in wedon'trememberhowlong.  I met one of my new flatmates, Sarah, who came out for a drink with us at a perfectly Brooklyn bar with trophies lining the wall.  Eleni took me to a neighborhood staple called Roberta's where we ate an entire pizza and were presented with "accidental" extra beer and cider.

This is my new life.  Remember that, Kaitlin.

The next day was a whirlwind of interviews for various law firms and meet ups with friends from college.  Eleni's cousin, Tina, came through town so we went to sushi with her and her friends.  Eleni, Tina, and I all went to the same high school so it was a funny juxtaposition of life, of home, all burrowed up in the East Village.  That night I practically collapsed in Eleni's bed and didn't wake up or move until 10am the following day.

Yesterday, as I roamed the streets in SoHo attempting to buy more professional clothes since I've had so many interviews and my clothes from CA aren't here yet, I felt much better about this new life.  I had been so overwhelmed and sleep-deprived the day before that I was almost wondering what the hell I was doing in NYC.  But as I skittered over beneath an overhang to escape the sudden darkness and downpour that overtook the city, and I looked around at all the other people making their valiant attempts to walk one more block, and I looked at the people pretending the rain didn't bother them but they really just wanted to punch someone, and I just knew to wait calmly because it would pass in a few minutes...it's like God telling you to slow down for a second.  This wasn't the first time I was living in a big city. I knew what to do before I even realized it.

I realized that this city reminds me of living in Madrid again.  For those of you that know me well, you need no other explanation.  For those of you that don't, Madrid is my other home.  California and Madrid.  Maybe I have a "home" now in Brooklyn but home is always California or Madrid.

So, I kind of chuckled and directed it at my phone even though it wouldn't have mattered if I laughed at the sky since "we're all mad here."

Then I did what I've been doing for a lot of this road trip when something like this has come my way...I turned up the street and walked a bit more slowly.





Note: I will continue with this blog until I feel it is unnecessary to my new life's course.  Expect more updates.  I'll continue to blog about trying and failing (or winning) at being a New Yorker, what's going on with my job situation, new things I experience...this blog will obviously change course just slightly but a city like this doesn't sink into your skin right away.