How buying a one-way ticket to New York City changed my life.
New York is a hard city to live in. There’s a reason some people call it the concrete jungle. Everything from the harsh weather to the harsh people, to the congestion and the roaches — nothing comes easy in the big city. Frank Sinatra once put it: “If you can make it here you’ll make it anywhere” but he forgot to mention that you better make sure to work your ass off.
I was a recent college graduate and had just completed an internship in advertising down in Miami with no job to secure at the end. I had become starry-eyed to pursue the Mad Men track and become a big time ad executive in the advertising capital of the world, so I packed my bags and booked a one-way flight to New York City. A month flew by with no job or income and I was living with four other people in a 1-bedroom apartment. They were nice enough to let me live with them rent-free, but sleeping on a suede couch in an apartment with no air conditioning during the dead heat of a New York City summer heat wave was not ideal.
I eventually was fortunate enough to land myself an internship where I was able to pay for the basic necessities such as booze and train fare. Although I was working at a renowned agency and gaining great experience, I knew I couldn’t sustain a life earning $400/week in one of the most expensive cities in the world. So every day I spent hours upon hours applying to fulltime jobs. I would constantly sneak out of my internship for a “doctors appointment”, change into my suit and tie in a dirty public bathroom and pitch myself in job interviews only to be rejected later by grammatically incorrect emails from the HR department. The pressure and rejection was wearing on me but I knew I had to stay focused. I was broke but not broken.
Every day was a struggle but I hustled hard, and through determination landed my first fulltime job in one of the top ad agencies in the world. New York may be seen as a tough city that tries to break you down, but I think the city has to offer a much more valuable experience.
I learned that I have to be resourceful. You’re constantly facing challenges and need to know how to assess the situation and find a solution in a moments notice. Whether you have to change clothes in a dirty bathroom for an interview, or hurdle over a pile of garbage to reach the subway platform in time — you learn to find solutions on the fly.
I learned to be tough. Having thick skin does not make you an abrasive person, but rather guards you from life’s obstacles. Whether it’s being emotionally tough that helps you stay focused to get through the hard times, or socially tough so people won’t take advantage of you. The latter which definitely helps when your cab driver insists on taking the FDR when he could easily cut through 3rd Ave instead.
Lastly, I learned the importance of ones self. The life you live is yours and yours alone, do what you want with it. Being in a city with 8.4 million people you’re humbled, but you should be the one who’s going to determine your life. If you hate your job — get a new one. If you want to go back to school — go. Although there are many factors that influence us when we make big decisions in life, in the end you should choose what is best for you and not have to worry about what others may think.
The decisions we make in life set the stage for how the rest of our days will play out. And although my decision to buy a one-way ticket to New York City may have seemed a bit impulsive and naïve at the time — I lived, I learned, and I could not have asked for a greater experience that changed my life forever.
