Looking back now, I can hardly believe that I spent so much of my life under the spell of New York City. I left the city more than half a year ago, and it's incredible just how much better I feel. There's a sense of renewal that I'm experiencing, like a heavy fog has lifted. New York had become suffocating in its intensity, its incessant, non-stop energy.
Funny enough, I remember being a student at Duke University, where there was an almost unspoken expectation that upon graduation, you moved to New York. That was the dream, or so we were told. It was where everyone else was heading, where opportunities were, where life truly started.
Before the pandemic, it was accepted as the truth. Offices were there, everything was happening there. And so, we tolerated absurd living conditions and exorbitant cost of living. We paid thousands of dollars a month for tiny, dilapidated apartments, and had our packages stolen right from our doorsteps. We endured the stench of garbage-laden streets and a subway system that felt more like a poorly maintained public restroom.
I often wonder now, why did I even stay? Why did I join the masses? It's because I was told that success looked like a high-paying job in New York City. When you don't question why you're pursuing something, you just do it because it's the done thing.
I joined the corporate life, I paid a significant chunk of my salary on rent, and before I knew it, I was stuck in a cycle that seemed impossible to break.
In New York, you start to become like everyone else. You attend the same parties, you partake in the same culture. There's an acceptance of the pervasive stress and pretentiousness that permeates the city. But it was only after leaving that I truly recognized the suffocation I had been experiencing.
The pandemic, if anything, forced us to reevaluate. Why are we here? Why do we follow the herd without asking if there's a better way to live? We deserve more than being stuck in a relentless corporate cycle, even if there are perks like free food at Google.
Your freedom, your ability to make your own choices, is infinitely more valuable. There's more to life than being a cog in a corporate machine, even if you're a well-paid cog. You can't express your true thoughts if you're trapped in the corporate world, a world where you're expected to parrot what your superiors tell you.
New York City, it felt like, was the heart of this corporate machine. It's a place where financial success is worshipped, where pretentiousness is almost a prerequisite.
But there's a better way. We're at a stage now where remote work is not only possible, it's encouraged. There are cities with lower cost of living, cities on the rise.
If you can, leave New York. Go to Atlanta, go to Florida, or even Tulsa. There's a world out there waiting to be discovered, a world where you can breathe freely again.
